The Songbird and the Serpent
by Dhai
Summary: Voldemort's first rise to power and all that followed told from Lupin's POV. Currently in the process of editingrewriting to fix errors. Please R&R!
1. Prologue

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Prologue**

_Remus Lupin at age 10..._

_The small boy walked through a dark forest. He glanced fearfully through the shadowy trees surrounding him as he made his way towards a small patch of light that never seemed to get any closer. It was twilight on a particularly hot summer evening, but he wasn't sure how he knew it, since he could feel neither heat nor cold in this place. _

_The trees in the oddly colourless forest appeared to sneer at him as he walked past, their claw-like branches reaching out towards him. He couldn't remember how he had ended up here. Was he lost?_

_At long last, he came to a small clearing, lit as if by a spotlight. The sinister-looking trees surrounded him, like some kind of bloodthirsty audience waiting for some entertaining spectacle. He wanted to keep walking, to get home as quickly as possible, but his limbs no longer seemed to be taking orders from his brain. _

_He stood, watched and waited, glued to the spot, until a deep guttural growling behind him made him shudder. His feet unstuck, he started to run, but moved so slowly that he didn't see how he could possibly outrun the source of the low rumbling growl. _

_Still moving in seeming slow motion, he turned his head to look at the creature, but before he could see clearly what followed him, he was bowled over onto the ground. Something heavy, with large clawed feet that dug into his flesh, stood on his shoulders as he lay face down on the forest floor._

_The growling continued as the creature sniffed him, ruffling his hair with gusts of rancid breath. He could feel a trickle of drool on the back of his neck, and then blinding pain in his right shoulder. _

_The colourless forest disappeared, replaced by red. Nothing but red, and the pain ebbing away to be replaced by a pleasant floating sensation. He heard footsteps, then frantic shouting, and then nothing. _

_

* * *

_

Remus woke with a start, flailing wildly to release himself from the bedclothes, which had somehow wound around him. He fell out of his bed with a loud thump and lay still on his back, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember who he was, what he was doing, and other such important things that he couldn't seem to recall. His right shoulder was throbbing, and he was covered in a cold sweat and very much out of breath. He heard movement in the room next to him.

As he began to regain a sense of self, his bedroom door flew open and his mother rushed in. She held her wand out in front of her, the tip dimly illuminated so she wouldn't have to put the lights on. She kneeled beside her son, feeling his forehead with her free hand.

"You're burning up. What happened? Was it nightmares again?" Said Mrs. Lupin, her voice full of motherly concern. She lifted Remus off of the floor and placed him back in his bed. He was ten years old, but so small and thin for his age that it was no trouble at all for his mother to lift him. He nodded weakly, his eyes still a little glazed. His mother sighed and sat on the bed next to him, placing a hand lovingly on his shoulder.

"It's all right darling...I do wish I could make it all go away, but I can't. You'll grow out of them eventually, I promise. Now, try to get some sleep..." She continued with a weary smile. She then stood and bid her son goodnight, returning to her own bedroom.

It seemed like no matter how often he had these dreams, he still felt just as shaken afterwards. He would give anything not to have to live through the memory of the attack almost every night of his life; it was bad enough having to live with the physical consequences without the addition of horrible nightmares.

The creature that had bitten Remus at age four was a werewolf, and now he was doomed to share its fate every full moon. Not only did this mean an extremely painful transformation, the loss of his human mind, and the inability to be around those he loved for a few days every month, but it also meant that he would likely never get to go to school, and never be fully accepted in wizard society.

When he thought about the future, about how he would ever manage to make a living, it seemed utterly hopeless. His parents were hardly wealthy; they wouldn't be able to look after him forever. He couldn't help but wish that the beast had just finished him off then and there.

Remus did not fall back asleep that night, but instead lay awake contemplating these things, as he did most nights, and at first light he clambered out of bed and made his way downstairs. His parents were still asleep, but soon his father would be waking up and getting ready for work. Mr. Lupin worked as a sales representative for a local company, earning a modest wage. He was a muggle, and a very tall, thin man with fair hair. Family friends had always said how much Remus looked like him.

Sure enough, before Remus had finished making toast his father trudged down the stairs with a yawn, wearing a worn out old dressing gown and crossing the room to the kitchen window to retrieve the paper from the owl that had just arrived there.

"Morning Remus...you feeling all right? Your mother said you had a bit of trouble again last night..." Said Mr. Lupin as he sat at the kitchen table and set the paper down on the table top, his eyes on his son and full of weary concern.

"I'm fine...used to it by now." Said Remus, picking at a piece of toast that he'd liberally smothered in honey. His father grinned at him, made himself a cup of tea and picked up the paper, glancing over the headlines on the front.

"Hmm... Nothing interesting going on. Seems like forever since we had a good scandal in the papers...something worthwhile to read in the morning." Said Mr. Lupin absently as he sipped his tea. Remus's mother made her way down the stairs, fully dressed and pulling on her apron as she made a beeline for the stove. She was a tall and well-built woman with dark auburn hair, and Remus couldn't help but notice the immense pride in his father's eyes every time he looked at her.

Mr. Thaddeus Lupin had known nothing of the wizarding world before he had met the statuesque Wynne Flowerdew. He had spotted in her in the street one day and she, as he put it, "utterly bewitched him"; an interesting choice of words, considering. Everyone had been most impressed at how quickly he'd come to accept the idea of wizards and witches existing in the world, and how quickly he and Wynne fell madly in love with each other.

"Don't you boys want something a bit more than tea and toast?" She asked them both cheerfully, giving her husband a kiss on the cheek. "Bacon? Eggs? Anything?"

"No no, I'm fine with tea, love...I'm running late anyway..." Said Mr. Lupin as he stood from the table and tossed the paper aside. "Got to go get dressed for work and be off." He continued and trudged back up the stairs. Mrs. Lupin frowned, and turned to Remus.

"Well, what about you darling? You really ought to eat something more than that..." She said, and Remus had to admit that looking at him, you couldn't deny that a full breakfast would do him good.

"No thanks mum...not very hungry." Said Remus, finishing his honey-laden toast. His mother sighed, putting her hands on her hips, looking around the room for something to do to keep her busy. She was the type of person that was only happy when she was busy, and although their house was poor, it was marvellously well kept because of her. They certainly had the nicest garden Remus had ever seen, although granted, he hadn't seen all that many.

Remus didn't get out of the house much, what with many of the wizard residents of their small village being aware of his lycanthropy. They didn't feel safe with him walking around. He always thought it odd that they were so afraid of a skinny little boy like him, but the fact was that very few people really understood his affliction, and all seemed to think he could attack them at any moment, or make them all werewolves just by breathing on them. No matter how often his parents explained that this just wasn't the case, people remained adamant that they didn't want him near them or their families.

So Remus remained indoors most days, helping out his mother. In her spare time she would lend him an old wand and teach him some of the simpler household spells. His parents didn't hold much hope that Remus would ever be accepted at school, so they did what they could to teach him enough to get by.

"That blasted Headmaster Dippet...I just don't understand why he's so against it! Surely there are ways to work around it all..." Said Mrs. Lupin one Saturday morning. It was a lovely summer's day in late July, Remus's eleventh birthday was less than a month away, and the subject of conversation at breakfast had turned to that of schooling once again. In the last year his parents had been sending endless letters to the Headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in an effort to persuade him to take on their son, but each reply came back negative. _I can't risk the danger to the other students_, he would say, and Remus could certainly understand the man's position, as much as it angered him. They had received their last reply from Dippet a few months ago, and since then it seemed that their letters were being ignored.

Mrs. Lupin was on a tirade about the whole situation while Remus sat and looked out of the window, and Mr. Lupin read the morning paper. "It's just rude, not to bother replying like this...he should be ashamed...that school needs a change in command if you ask me..."

"Well good news then...looks like they've had one." Said Mr. Lupin with a grin, and Remus saw his mother's eyes grow wide, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"Are you sure, dear?"

"Oh yes, says right here..." He said as he pointed to the column he was reading. "_Armando Dippet has resigned as Headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, appointing the now ex-transfiguration professor, Albus Dumbledore, as Headmaster in his place. When asked to comment on the reason for his resignation, Dippet said simply 'I've had enough'..._" Read Mr. Lupin, and Remus saw a grin finally break out across his mother's face.

"Dumbledore! How marvellous...certainly an improvement...we'll have to write to him at once, of course..." Said an overly-excited Mrs. Lupin as she rummaged around for a quill and some parchment in a desk along the wall. Remus saw his father look up at his mother, his face set in a strangely serious expression.

"Now, don't get your hopes up too much, Wynne. Just because there's a new Head, that doesn't mean he's going to be any more supportive...for one thing, you've still got the school Governors to think about..." He said, but as he looked back over his paper, Remus caught the tiniest flash of a grin on his father's face. He couldn't help but smile, too.

* * *

Remus was woken by the sound of various locks being unlocked, and the heavily reinforced door creaking open. His mother came through into the small room, carrying a tray laden with food, which she set carefully on a small makeshift table consisting of a large solid slab of wood. She was beaming at him.

"Happy Birthday, Remus..." She said softly, kneeling down to help him sit up in the ripped-up old mattress that served as his bed during full moons. The room was an old bomb shelter under the house, which they had altered to suit Remus's needs. They didn't put much furniture in the place, since it would inevitably get smashed, and so the room contained only the makeshift table and the ruined mattress, and a few blankets that were hardly recognisable as such anymore, having been ripped to shreds. "Just your luck to have it fall right after the full moon this year..." She added with a grin.

Remus smiled weakly, and his mother helped him drink a simple potion to clear his head and help heal the wounds he always managed to inflict on himself each month, biting and scratching at himself for lack of anything else to bite and scratch. As soon as his head cleared a little, he began to hungrily consume everything on the tray. His mother watched him, still smiling, but there was a definite hint of worry in her eyes.

"Feeling well enough to come upstairs, darling?" She asked, and Remus nodded, feeling far from 'well' but so used to being tired and ill that he hardly noticed it anymore. His mother helped him up and into a dressing gown, and supported him up the stairs and towards the kitchen. She sat him down at the table there, taking a seat next to him.

"Your father had to go to work, but he wanted me to give you this now instead of waiting for him..." She said as she handed him a small envelope addressed to him in green ink. The seal on the back told him it was from Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and with a grin he tore it open and read:

_Dear Mr. Remus Lupin,_

_I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although the new school year does not officially begin until the 1st of September, due to your special circumstances we would like to ask that you arrive a day or two earlywe have a few things to sort out in order to make your stay with us possible, as I'm sure you understand._

_Included with this letter is a list of all the things you will need for your first year here at Hogwart's, and we look forward to meeting you in person at the end of August._

_Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress_


	2. Part 1 Chapter 1

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part I: Hogwart's**

Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...

_Chapter 1_

After receiving his Hogwart's letter, time seemed to fly by at astounding speeds for Remus Lupin. Before he knew it, he was on the Knight Bus with his mother, heading for Hogsmeade. The parting with his father earlier that morning had been rather painful; Remus had never had to deal with leaving home for even a day or two before, and now he would be away from his parents until Christmas, which was a good three and a half months away. The prospect frightened him a little, but he was far too thankful for the opportunity to go to school to let his fears get in the way.

The bus dropped them off near the Hogwart's castle gates, where a huge, hairy man in a patchy fur coat met them. He had to be at least twice the size of a normal man, and for a moment Remus felt his fears flare up. His mother, however, was smiling broadly.

"'Ello there...lovely ter see yeh again, Wynne!" Said the huge man, holding out his monstrous hand. Remus imagined it could likely crush his skull with ease, and he felt himself growing faint. Mrs. Lupin took the hand and shook it happily, and then the man turned his small black eyes to Remus. "An' yeh mus' be young Remus then...I'm Rubeus Hagrid, keeper o' keys an' grounds 'ere at Hogwart's." He said, reaching the huge hand towards the tiny, frightened boy practically cowering behind his mother.

After a short and awkward pause he plucked up his courage, as despite the man's size he obviously wasn't trying to hurt anybody. His mother certainly wasn't afraid of him, after all. He apprehensively took the hand offered him, his own completely dwarfed by the man's fingers in the handshake.

"Righ' then...I'm ter take yeh up ter meet Dumbledore...follow me." He said with a smile, and Remus and his mother followed Hagrid up to the large front doors of the impressive castle. As they made their way into the entrance hall Remus couldn't help but let out a small gasp of surprise. He'd never seen such a large room in his life, or one so beautiful. As they were led up various staircases and down multiple hallways towards their destination, Remus found himself becoming utterly lost in his surroundings, having previously seen very little beyond his own house.

Eventually they came to Dumbledore's office door, and Hagrid gave the password and bid them a cheerful farewell as they stepped onto the staircase now rising towards the headmaster's office. They found him sitting at his desk, and when they entered he stood to greet them.

"Ah, Mrs. Lupin...I remember when you were still Miss Wynne Flowerdew...sitting at the back of my classes drawing in your notebook. I still have a particularly amusing sketch of myself that was confiscated from you in your 4th year..." Said Dumbledore, striding towards Remus' mother, who was turning a slight shade of pink out of embarrassment as she shook his hand. He was a tall, thin man with a very long silver beard, and hair to match. He was wearing spectacular purple robes embroidered with gold stars, and wire-rimmed half-moon spectacles. Remus got the strong impression that this man was exceptionally powerful, despite his age and seeming frailty. He turned to Remus, offering his hand. "And you must be Remus. It's a pleasure to meet you..." He said with a kind smile.

"Oh, Sir...the pleasure's all mine..." Said Remus in a shy voice, returning the smile as he shook hands with the man, who then offered him and his mother seats, which they gladly took. He reclaimed his own seat behind his desk.

"I'm just glad Dippet retired in time for me to make this possible. I had been trying to persuade him, upon hearing of your letters, to accept you at the school...but as you know, he wasn't exactly responsive. However, I see no reason whatsoever why we can't have young Remus here. I've taken it upon myself this last month to organise certain means of working around your lycanthropy, and provided we take the proper precautions, we shouldn't have any trouble at all." Explained Dumbledore, and Remus nodded, wondering just what these means and precautions could be.

"Now...first for a few words of warning. I'm sure you're aware of the negative light in which those of your kind are portrayed, and although I myself have no particular prejudice against werewolves, you can be sure that many of your fellow students, not to mention their parents, will. Therefore, under no circumstances are you to let anyone know that you are a werewolf, Remus. Only you, myself, and certain members of the staff are to know. Luckily we have a rather enlightened staff here at Hogwart's who are willing to accept you, now that they understand how it is to be achieved." He continued.

"Excuse me, Sir...but just how IS it to be achieved?" Asked Mrs. Lupin, and Dumbledore smiled.

"Well, if you will kindly follow me, I will show you." He said, and motioned for them to stand. He led them out of his office, down the steps, and back through the hallways and down the staircases to the entrance hall. He then continued to lead them out onto the grounds, turning to explain as they headed further out into the darkening evening.

"Now, before every full moon, Madame Pomfrey, our school nurse, will accompany you out here..." He said, and they stopped walking. He gestured towards a very large willow tree that had begun to thrash its dangerous-looking branches around as they approached. "...To the Whomping Willow tree. I had it planted last month specifically for your use. Now..." He continued as he bent down to pick up one of many long, thin branches that had likely been snapped off of the tree by it's own movement. "...All you need do to make it stop moving is prod this knot at the base here...and you see, it's stopped. Now, follow me...and hurry, because it will start moving again momentarily..." He said, and led them to a hole amongst the trees roots that Remus had not been able to see from further away.

They climbed down into the hole after Dumbledore, and he led them down a very small, dark passageway with a very low ceiling, forcing Mrs. Lupin and Dumbledore to bend over slightly to walk through it. At the end of the passage, there was a very large reinforced metal door, which Dumbledore opened, and gestured for Remus and his mother to pass through. They were now in a small, sparsely furnished room. The windows were boarded up from the outside, and there was a single door leading off to the right.

"This, Remus, is where you shall stay during the full moon cycle. The morning after you return to yourself, Madame Pomfrey will arrive and heal you up as best she can, and then you're free to spend the rest of that day resting up before returning to the dormitories and to your classes. This means, of course, that you may be missing a few days of school every month, so you'll have to work very hard to keep up in your lessons." Said Dumbledore seriously, and Remus nodded.

"I will...er...where exactly are we right now?" He asked.

"We're right outside of Hogsmeade. I've been doing my best to spread rumours about this place, which we built only last month to accommodate you, and so far it's working. People have been very curious of course, but no one's brave enough to come any closer than the surrounding fence as of yet." Dumbledore explained, and Remus nodded. Dumbledore motioned for them to explore the place, and in the room to the right Remus noticed a staircase, which led up into another room, which contained only a bed and a chair. Every window in the place was heavily boarded up, and the front door too. The only way in or out was through the heavy metal door leading back to the dark passageway.

"This is wonderful, really...I just don't know how we'll ever repay you for all this..." Said Mrs. Lupin, and Dumbledore smiled.

"It's no trouble, truly. It would be a terrible crime to deny this boy an education just because of his unfortunate condition...I only hope that someday all children in similar situations can be so lucky." He said, and led them back through the large reinforced door, down the passageway and out onto the grounds once more. When they returned to the entrance hall, he turned to them.

"Now, the rest of the children will be arriving tomorrow evening. You have somewhere to stay tonight, I trust?" Said Dumbledore, and Mrs. Lupin nodded.

"Oh yes...I reserved a room at The Three Broomsticks for the night."

"Excellent, excellent. Do say hello to the lovely Rosmerta for me, won't you? Well then, I shall see you tomorrow evening, Remus. Just get yourself to the train station and keep an eye out for Hagrid. He'll be taking you and your fellow first years across the lake...a bit of a school tradition. Mrs. Lupin, it was lovely to see you again. Do tell your husband I send my regards, won't you?" Dumbledore said with a grin, and after some more hand shaking and farewells, Remus and his mother made their way back into Hogsmeade for the night.

* * *

Remus arrived at the small Hogwart's Express platform the following evening after the tearful good-byes to his mother. The train hadn't arrived yet, so he took a seat on an old bench on the platform and waited, setting his trunk on the ground next to him. He didn't have to wait long, and soon the train was pulling in to the station, and he saw Hagrid wander down the platform to collect the first years.

"'Ello there, Remus!" He called out, and Remus stood and made to pick up his trunk. "Oh, don' bother wi' that, it'll be taken up ter the castle with the rest of 'em..." Said Hagrid, so Remus abandoned his trunk and wandered over to stand by the huge man just as the train's passengers began to empty out onto the platform. A noisy, chattering sea of black robes began to sweep past, and Remus jumped slightly as Hagrid began to bellow over the heads of everyone going by

"Firs' years! Firs' years this way! Follow me!"

After a few minutes a small crowd had formed around Hagrid, and he led them off down a steep, narrow path flanked on both sides by a dark throng of trees. Remus walked at the front of the group, right behind Hagrid, and listened to the chattering of the other children behind him. Eventually they came to the edge of a huge lake, where many small boats were waiting for them. There were cries of awe and excitement as the children got their first glimpse of the turreted castle across the lake, and Hagrid turned towards the group.

"Righ' then...four ter a boat...come on, got ter get movin'!" He said, and Remus found himself a boat and clambered in. He could feel someone else climb into the boat behind him, and turned to see a small boy with dirty blonde hair and a look of fear in his eyes. The boy smiled nervously, and almost toppled out of the boat when two others climbed aboard and the vessel started moving on it's own towards the opposite side of the lake.

They came to a curtain of ivy on the cliff face at the other side of the lake, and passed through it into an underground tunnel. Remus guessed that they must be right below the castle, and when they came to a stop at a sort of harbour they all climbed out of their boats and followed Hagrid out of the cavern, onto the grounds, and towards the open front doors, where a stern-looking witch wearing green robes was waiting for them.

"Good evening first years and welcome to Hogwart's...I'm Professor McGonagall, and if you'll kindly follow me, we'll be heading to the Great Hall for the start of term feast. However, before you can sit with your fellow students, you must be sorted into houses. Your house will be like your family here at Hogwart's; you will have classes with them, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend your free time in your house common room. We have four houses here at Hogwart's, named for the four founders of the school; Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff. Your house will be chosen by the Sorting Hat, which you will place on your head when I call your name. While you are here at the school, your triumphs will win you points for your house, while any rule breaking will lose points. At the end of the year the House Cup will be awarded to the house with the most points. Any questions before we go?" She said, and looked around, "no? All right then, follow me." She continued, and the group followed her through a door to the right which led to the Great Hall, which Remus noticed was illuminated beautifully by hundreds of floating candles.

There were four long tables set up for the four houses, and another table at the top of the hall to accommodate the staff. Remus noticed a few pale, silvery beings seated at the tables, or floating around the hall, and guessed that they must be ghosts. His mother had told him about the ghosts at Hogwart's, but the sight of them was still quite a shock, as he had never seen a ghost before. Hagrid was taking his place at the staff table as McGonagall led them up the centre isle towards the front of the hall, where a stool was set, holding a very tattered hat. Remus guessed that this must be the Sorting Hat.

The students sitting at the tables were all facing the front of the room, as if waiting expectantly for something. Remus thought it must be the Sorting, but when he looked at Professor McGonagall, she was turned to face the hat. Remus looked at the hat, trying to see what everyone was waiting for, and then a tear near the brim opened up and the hat began to sing

_About a thousand years ago,  
__Four people forged a plan,  
__To start a school of magic,  
__And that's how this place began._

_Gryffindor preferred the brave,  
__And Ravenclaw the smart,  
__And Slytherin liked those who craved  
__Great power in the arts,  
__Helga Hufflepuff preferred  
__The loyal and hard working,  
__And these attributes referred above  
__Decided all the sorting._

_And so the four created me,  
__To carry on this work  
__In future generations,  
__And this task I shall not shirk._

_So put me on and I shall see  
__The truth inside your mind,  
__I'll put you in your proper place,  
__All based on what I find._

The hat finished its song, and the Hall broke out into applause. Once the noise died down again, Professor McGonagall pulled out a list and began to call the first years forward to be sorted. Remus began to wonder what house he might end up in; he didn't think he was very brave, or very smart, and he certainly didn't "crave great power in the arts," so he thought he'd probably end up in Hufflepuff. Then again, hismother was in Ravenclaw, and he had heard that families tended to end up in the same house most of the time. He was still thinking it all through in his head when he heard McGonagall call his name

"Lupin, Remus!"

Startled, he made his way forward, picked up the hat, sat on the stool, and placed the hat on his head. It was so big that if fell over his eyes, and he sat blindly waiting for it to speak. Suddenly he heard a small voice in his ear that he was sure was only audible to him

"Hmm...A difficult one...a rather good brain in your head, loyal and hard-working, yes, but I'm feeling a great deal of bravery in you too, so I'm going to have to go with..." and now the voice rang out in the room around him

"Gryffindor!"

There were loud cheers from the Gryffindor table, and Remus happily made his way to it and took a seat next to a pretty girl with red hair who smiled up at him as he sat down. It seemed he was the fourth to be sorted into Gryffindor so far, along with the redheaded girl, a tall black girl sitting next to her, and a smirking boy with jet-black hair that was sitting opposite him at the table. The boy that had shared Remus' boat earlier soontook a seat next to him as they all applauded his addition to the house.

The smirking boy across the table was leaning absently on his elbow as he looked towards the front of the room, and suddenly gave a grin and a thumbs-up to the boy now approaching the stool. This boy, who had very messy dark hair and wore wire-rimmed glasses, returned the gesture as he shoved the hat on his head. In a matter of seconds he was joining them at the Gryffindor table, and Remus politely joined in the applause as the boy with the messy hair sat down next to his smirking friend.

Gryffindor gained only two more students; a short girl with wild blue eyes and blonde hair, and a very shy brunette girl who sat slightly apart from the others. Once everyone had taken his or her seats, Dumbledore stood up to address the hall.

"I have only two words for you; Bon Appetite." He announced with a grin, and the many golden platters on the tables were magically filled with food. Remus helped himself to a few things that looked pleasing, but found that he wasn't really very hungry. His stomach was twisting in anxious knots as he picked at his plate, and all he could think about was how quiet and safe and familiar it was back at home. He grew ever more nervous as he looked around the room at all the people now deep in conversation. He had never had any real friends before, and wasn't entirely sure how to make them. He supposed that talking to someone was the best way to start, but he couldn't seem to make any words come out. He glanced at the ceiling for something to do and stifled a gasp of surprise. It looked as though the room was open to the night sky, a velvety black filled with twinkling stars.

"It's enchanted." He heard a voice say, and looked across the table in the direction from which the voice had come. The boy with the messy hair and wire-rimmed glasses was smiling at him, and began to shove apple crumble unceremoniously into his mouth.

"Oh..." Said Remus in a small voice, looking back up at the enchanted ceiling.

"Thought it was real, did you?" Said the smirking boy in a mocking tone, sweeping his black hair out of his eyes. Remus felt his face grow red and didn't reply. The boy then turned back to his messy-haired friend, grinning broadly.

"Oi, James...did you see the looks on my cousins' faces when I got sorted? Classic..." He said, and they both glanced at the Slytherin table and laughed.

The golden platters were now empty, and Dumbledore stood up once more to address the now silent hall.

"And now that we've all stuffed ourselves silly, I have a few start of term notices. First years, and indeed every other year, should note that the dark forest is strictly forbidden to all students. Also, Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term, so if you're interested please contact Madame Hooch. And finally, the school caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that no magic is to be used between classes in the corridors, and that a full list of forbidden items has been posted in his office for you to view at your leisure. And now...off to bed!" Said Dumbledore, and there was a flurry of movement as everyone began to stand and make their way towards the doors and out into the entrance hall.

"Gryffindor first years! Come with me!" He heard a pleasant voice call, and turned to see a pink-cheeked, black-haired girl standing towards the end of the table. She was sporting a small pin marked with a letter "P" on her robes, and Remus guessed that it must mean she was a prefect. He made his way over to her along with the other Gryffindor first years, and she led them into the entrance hall and up the huge central staircase.

They followed her up a fair few more staircases, past hundreds of paintings, whose inhabitants waved and greeted them cheerfully as they passed by. Eventually they came to a large painting of a rather fat lady in a pink dress, who asked them for a password. The pink-cheeked witch gave the password, reminding the first years to remember it

"_Shrivelfig_..." she said, and the painting swung aside to reveal a hole leading into the Gryffindor common room, which looked warm and comfortable, full of overstuffed armchairs. Once they all got inside and the portrait swung back into place, the prefect turned towards them.

"Wow...quite a small turnout for Gryffindor this year! I don't think a house has had so few new students in ages...anyway, this is the Gryffindor common room, as I'm sure you've guessed. Boy's dormitories are up the stairs to the left, girls up the stairs to the right. Your dormitory room will be marked 'first years' and you'll find all your belongings up there waiting for you. Oh, and my name's Hestia Jones, and if you have any questions just ask me or my fellow Gryffindor prefect, Roman Webster...I don't know where he's got to..." She said, then bid them all goodnight and made her way up to her dormitory. The girls followed her up to the girl's rooms, and Remus turned to follow the other first year boys up to their room, which was the first door at the top of the stairs.

The room was comfortable and set with a four-poster bed for each of them, hung with red velvet drapes, and four nightstands. Remus found his trunk at the foot of the bed nearest to the window and began to unpack his belongings. He was drifting back to thoughts of home when a voice called him back to the present

"Oi! I asked you a question..." Said the messy-haired and bespectacled boy, who was unpacking a stack of books. Remus turned to him.

"Sorry...wasn't paying attention...what did you say?" He said, and the boy smiled.

"I just asked your name, that's all. Thought we should all get to know each other." He explained, flopping onto his bed, which was across from Remus'.

"Oh...Remus Lupin." He said in a quiet voice, and smiled politely.

"Nice to meet you, Remus...I'm James Potter, and this moody git is Sirius Black." The boy explained, gesturing towards the previously smirking boy, who gave a very insincere smile and continued to unpack his things. James then turned to the boy in the bed beside Remus'. "And what about you, then?" He asked, and the boy's watery eyes grew wide with shock at having been addressed.

"Er...Peter Pettigrew. Hi." He said hesitantly, smiling rather awkwardly at the others. James grinned and looked around the room, then took a cue from Sirius, who had changed into his pyjamas, and did the same. Remus and Peter followed suit, and suddenly Remus became painfully aware of just how tired he actually was. In all the excitement of the evening, he hadn't really paid much attention to his physical state. But now his legs felt stiff and his joints ached from fatigue. He climbed into bed, and politely answered to James' overly cheerful calls of goodnight to the rest of the room's inhabitants, and then before he knew it, he was fast asleep.


	3. Part 1 Chapter 2

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part I: Hogwart's**

Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...

_Chapter 2_

He was woken by a slap to the face.

"Hey! Remus? You all right?" Said James, and when Remus' head cleared he sat up.

"What?" He asked, baffled as to why he'd been slapped. James had a look of relief on his face and took a step back.

"You were thrashing about like mad and making a bit of a racket...I thought I should wake you...what was that all about, anyway?" He asked, raising a brow, and Remus absently scratched his head. He was pretty sure he knew what he'd been dreaming about, but thought it best to lie.

"Er...can't remember. Sorry if I woke you..." he said with a yawn, and James shook his head.

"Nah...I was awake already. It's almost time to get up anyway--" he said, stopping abruptly when a shoe hit the wall very hard right by Remus' head. They both turned to look at Sirius, who was angrily shoving his head under his pillow. James rolled his eyes.

"Oi! You could've hurt someone with that!" Said James, shouting so loudly that Remus noticed Peter wake up with a start. Sirius removed his head from under his pillow.

"Sort of the point, mate...shut up, or I'll thump you both." He hissed, and promptly shoved the pillow back over his head. James just stared at him in disbelief for a few moments.

"You've got to get up in five minutes anyway, Sirius...calm down, will you?" He said, turning to Remus to give him an apologetic grin. "Sorry about him...it's like I said...he's a moody git. I swear he's lovely once you get to know him." He continued, with a short laugh, and Remus looked from James to the pile of blankets and pillows that was Sirius.

"Er...sure..."

* * *

During breakfast in the Great Hall, McGonagall, who Remus discovered was head of Gryffindor house, handed out their timetables. Remus noticed that they began the day with Defence Against the Dark Arts, which they shared with Slytherin house.

"Oh, not with Slytherin..." James whined, and Remus looked at him curiously.

"Is that bad?" He asked, and James gave him a look as if to convey that what he was about to say was very important.

"Everyone knows that Slytherin's where just about every dark wizard there ever was came out of...they're a nasty lot, them." He said seriously, and Remus shrugged.

"I'm sure they're not _all_ bad..." he said, and James just scoffed at him and returned to looking over his timetable.

"Great...we're with them all morning...The potions teacher's head of Slytherin house, too. Oh, what marvellous things Monday mornings are..." said James with more than a hint of sarcasm. Remus shook his head and turned back to his breakfast. Peter was reading over his timetable, looking quite worried, and Sirius had fallen asleep in his cornflakes. The wild-eyed girl, whom Remus had learned was named Vivienne, and the tall black girl named Mau were both giggling at Sirius from behind their timetables. Lily, the pretty redhead, was talking quietly with the shy girl named Zoë, who smiled at Remus when she noticed him watching them. He looked away quickly and felt himself turning rather red.

After breakfast they all headed to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, where a slightly hunchbacked old man with dark grey hair and a long plaited beard was waiting for them. Remus took a seat towards the back with Peter, and Sirius and James took seats right in front of them. Remus noticed an arrogant-looking boy with a dark tan taking a seat at the table beside Peter and himself, where a tall and greasy boy with a nose that could politely be described as 'aristocratic' was already seated.

"Come on now, take your seats! Settle down, settle down. I'm Professor Muldrake, and this is Defence Against the Dark Arts. I will be teaching you how to defend yourselves against dark magic, among other things, so please do pay attention because what you learn in this class could save your life one day." Said Professor Muldrake, and he took a seat at his desk. "Now...to start, let's turn to the first chapter in your books and talk about some simple blocking and disarming techniques..."

Remus found the subject very easy to absorb, and by the end of the lesson he was helping Peter master a blocking spell he was having trouble with. James and Sirius were having a marvellous time throwing various hexes and jinxes at each other, having mastered the day's material with even more ease than Remus. They were trying to catch each other off-guard, and after Sirius managed to hit James with a particularly nasty hex, covering him in boils and sending them both into fits of laughter, Muldrake felt obliged to dock five points from Gryffindor and send James to the hospital wing to get healed up.

Sirius continued to snigger to himself all the way up until they arrived at the potions classroom in the dungeons, where James was waiting for them, boil-free. James cuffed Sirius about the head in a gesture of mock anger, trying very hard to stop laughing, and they took a seat at the back of the cold, dimly lit potions classroom. Remus and Peter took the table next to them, Peter watching the two of them with interest as they talked amongst themselves. The greasy boy with the unfortunate nose and the boy with the dark tan soon occupied the last table in the back row.

After a few minutes, the potions professor finally wandered into the room, and Remus couldn't help but notice how exceptionally graceful the man's movement was; he seemed almost to glide along the floor. He stopped at the front of the room and turned around, and the class fell silent. He was very tall and thin, wearing robes of a deep red colour. His dark brown hair was long and wavy, and his face almost completely expressionless. Only his eyes, which were a piercing golden colour that even Remus could see clearly from the back of the room, gave away any sign that he wasn't merely a statue. After a few moments of heavy silence he spoke, and Remus noticed a thick Eastern European accent.

"Welcome to your first Potions lesson. I am Professor Tsepesh, and I will let you know from the start that I will not put up with any, er, 'mucking about' in this class. Potion making is a very exact art, and one that many find difficult, but if you just do exactly as I tell you and follow the directions given to you, then you should do just fine. Now, without further ado, let's start with a simple potion to cure boils, just to see what level you are at..." said Professor Tsepesh, and Remus heard James whisper to Sirius--

"Guess I shouldn't have bothered to go up to the hospital wing, eh?"

"Maybe I should just hex you again, so we can all test our potions later..." Sirius replied, and they both fell into stifled bouts of laughter. Professor Tsepesh shot them a warning glance, and they fell silent as he absently waved his wand towards the blackboard and the directions for making the potion appeared.

"You may begin...ingredients can be found in that cupboard..." he said, pointing to a door on the right, which flew open. Tsepesh then sat down at his desk and began to concentrate on writing something. Remus turned to Peter.

"Well...er...shall I go get the ingredients, then?" He asked, and Peter nodded.

"Yeah...I'll get the cauldron set up..." he replied, and Remus joined the small crowd that had formed around the ingredients cupboard. Once he got everything they needed, he returned to his seat and they began to prepare the potion.

Before long, he was very aware that the potion that he and Peter had created was far from what it should be. It had turned a nasty acid yellow and started to put out large amounts of sticky steam, at which point Remus and Peter both agreed it would be best to remove it from the fire and stay away from it for a while. Sirius and James had already managed to lose a few more points for Gryffindor by throwing horned slugs at each other, but Remus had to admit that their potion at least looked all right, if a bit lumpy.

On his other side, the greasy Slytherin and his tanned companion had created the potion to perfection, and were now sitting back and enjoying their spare time by reading the textbook. Remus was sure that he and Peter had made the biggest blunder of the potion in the class, and Tsepesh confirmed this feeling as he wound his way around the class, keeping an eye on everyone's progress.

"What on earth is this?" Asked Tsepesh, and Remus glanced at Peter, who was staring at his feet. He turned back to look into the Professor's fierce golden eyes and tried to think of a good answer.

"I...I don't know. It went wrong somewhere..." said Remus, and Tsepesh donned a mocking grin.

"Yes...I'd say so. Too much crushed snake fang, I'll wager." He said absently, and sighed. "Well, I'm afraid you two are going to need to work a bit harder in this class...and I really don't think you ought to be working together...you may just blow us all up." He continued, and Remus felt his face grow red. Professor Tsepesh turned to the table next to them where the Slytherin boys were still reading their textbooks.

"Snape, you will help Mr. Lupin here...Pettigrew, go sit with Avery. That should sort you two out." He said, and Peter glanced fearfully at the tan boy named Avery, who was staring venomously back at him, then collected his things and moved to the table to join him. The greasy-haired boy, who Remus now knew was named Snape, grudgingly came over to join Remus, never once looking at him. Professor Tsepesh glided back to his desk and sat down. "Right...this seating arrangement should prove far more beneficial to the...er...lesser-abled students in the class. But for now, the lesson is drawing to a close, so bring a sample of your potion up to me to be evaluated, and then you can clear up and leave."

Remus hurried with the sample and left the room as quickly as possible, joining Sirius, James and Peter in the hallway outside. Snape grimaced at him as he swept past and up the stairs, and Remus felt his heart sink. He was already dreading his next potions lesson, which luckily wasn't until Thursday afternoon. The four of them made their way to the Great Hall for lunch.

As they sat through lunch Remus kept getting the feeling that James was looking over at Peter and himself, suppressing laughter. Finally he decided to say something about it, as it was getting rather annoying.

"What is it, James? What's so funny?" He said, rather more harshly than he meant to, and James composed himself with some difficulty.

"I'm sorry...it's just...how unlucky can you get! I guess Potions just isn't your class..." said James, seeming to lose the battle with his laughter-suppression. Remus frowned and turned back to his lunch, in no mood to argue with anyone. Besides, he was right, they weren't doing so well in that class so far. Their first potion was a disaster, and now they had to work with two surly Slytherins to boot. Peter seemed to be thinking the same thing, looking alarmingly dejected as he picked at a cheese and cucumber sandwich. James stopped laughing when he saw that he'd upset them rather more than he meant to, and turned instead to his own lunch. Sirius however seemed to revel in their misery, grinning like a maniac as he watched them.

* * *

After lunch they had a double charms lesson with Hufflepuff, taught by a remarkably short and very pleasant little wizard named Professor Flitwick. Remus was cheered slightly by the fact that he showed a lot of promise in the class, and only James managed to levitate his feather before him. He left the class feeling a lot better about himself, although poor Peter was still feeling a bit dejected, having managed to set his feather on fire somehow. James and Sirius were pleased with themselves for finally managing to get through a class without losing any house points.

Remus's good feelings were soon dashed when he sat down to dinner. A haughty older Slytherin with long silver-blonde hair and cold grey eyes noticed Remus and whispered something to his companions as they passed. One of these companions--a pretty blonde girl whose expression suggested that there was a nasty smell under her nose--laughed rather cruelly.

"I see what you mean, Lucius...honestly, Dumbledore's letting any old rubbish in. Look at those robes!" She said, laughing again. It was true that Remus' robes were rather tattered, being second-hand, but he'd never really minded until now. The girl then noticed Sirius, who was grinning in a completely unfriendly manner at her, and she frowned. "...And I see my dear cousin has taken to fraternising with the rubbish...honestly, Sirius...you really are an utter disgrace..." she continued, and threw her head back as she continued on her way to the Slytherin table. Sirius shot the Slytherins a very venomous look and turned momentarily to Remus as if he might apologise for his cousin's words, but apparently he decided against it and instead grimaced into his steak and kidney pie. James, however, turned to Remus.

"Just ignore them...I told you those Slytherins were all scum...think they're all so great. I'd like to know why they feel the need to take the piss out of an eleven-year-old if they're so ruddy great..." he ranted, and Remus forced a smile as if to say it didn't bother him, but in truth the girl's words cut him rather more deeply than he ever wanted to admit.

After dinner Remus sent a letter home to his parents telling them all about his first day, although he managed to leave out the part about botching his first potion, and also didn't include the taunting he'd received during dinner. He was careful, however, to inquire as to whether or not it would be possible for him to have some new robes. He then made his way to the Gryffindor common room, where James and Sirius were sitting in a couple of armchairs, James holding an animated conversation with a strapping sixth year boy, and Sirius staring moodily into the fire. Peter was also sitting by the fire, looking rather awkward and continually glancing at Sirius as if he wanted to speak to him. Remus' first thought was to get his homework done, but then he realised that they hadn't been assigned any yet.

He took a seat by the fire and smiled at Peter, who politely returned the gesture before resuming his persistent glancing at Sirius. The boy that James was talking to took his leave and wandered over to a crowd of fellow sixth years.

"Frank Longbottom...our parents are friends. That's how I met Sirius here, too...my parents know his from way back...although they don't really get on too well anymore..." explained James, glancing cautiously at Sirius, and Remus nodded. His parents didn't really know many people, and he certainly hadn't been allowed to mix with anyone much in the last seven years.

"So, you two have know each other for a while, then?" He asked, and James nodded.

"Yeah...most of our lives, right Sirius?" Said James, but Sirius made no sign that he'd heard anything. James shrugged, and looked longingly over at the broomstick Frank Longbottom was holding. "I wish first years were allowed their own brooms...I'd love to try out for Quidditch, but I don't want to have to use the old school brooms. I'll probably just wait until next year. You a Quidditch fan?" He asked, and Remus nodded.

"Well...I like to watch it. Never played...never even been on a broom before. I was never allowed, since I'm always...er...ill." He explained, and James raised his eyebrows.

"Ill? What's wrong with you?" He asked, with what sounded like genuine concern in his voice. Remus couldn't help but feel his spirits rise at the thought that James might actually care about him, like a real friend.

"Er...well, I guess I just catch things easily..." he said, unable to come up with a better lie. James seemed to fall for it though, and an awkward silence fell, during which Remus thought that perhaps he shouldn't have mentioned his 'illness,' as it obviously managed to kill the conversation. Finally, he broke the silence, glancing at Sirius.

"Is he all right?" He asked James, who shrugged.

"Not sure, really...he gets like this sometimes...guess he has a lot to think about." Answered James.

"I don't think he likes me much, you know..." whispered Remus, and James gave a half-hearted smile.

"I'm not so sure about that...but it's hard to tell. Honestly, I think the bloke's a bit mad, actually." He said with a shrug, and Sirius turned to look at them.

"I'm stark-raving sane, thank you very much..." he muttered, and James laughed.

"Who do you think you are, the Prince of Denmark?" He said, and Remus, Sirius, and Peter all eyed him quizzically.

"What?" the three asked in unison, and James frowned.

"I don't know, actually...never mind." He said, and Sirius shrugged and turned back to the fire. Remus blinked; still a little confused, and then decided it might be best to just leave.

"Well...I'm off to bed I think. I'm a bit knackered. I'll see you later..." he said, and stood to go. James said goodnight, and so did Peter, but Sirius just continued to stare into the fire.


	4. Part 1 Chapter 3

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part I: Hogwart's**

Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...

_Chapter 3_

The next day began with a double Transfiguration class with Hufflepuff, led by Professor McGonagall. Sirius was particularly good in the class, and by the end of the lesson was the only person who managed to turn his matchstick into a needle. James had almost managed it, but his needle still had a flammable head. Remus had managed to make something that looked like a toothpick, but was rather proud of it when he realised that, besides the three of them, very few people had managed to make any difference at all to their matchsticks.

Peter was looking particularly disheartened, obviously embarrassed about being the only Gryffindor boy not to have done _something_ to their match. He grew even more depressed when McGonagall more than made up for the homework-free night they had enjoyed the previous day by assigning them a long essay about the chapter as well as the goal of being able to transfigure the match by the next class.

After lunch they spent a painful afternoon in History of Magic, the only class to be taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had apparently died in the staff room one day, left his body and simply continued about his daily routine. He had a droning, soothing voice that put even the most alert students into a sleepy trance by the end of a class, and Remus had to stab himself with his wand under the table at intervals during the lesson to keep awake.

Peter's head was lolling back, but every time he fell asleep he would snap awake again, straightening his head and staring wide-eyed at Professor Binns as if this time he might be able to keep himself from nodding off again. Sirius and James didn't seem so eager to try and stay focused. They were both sound asleep, and Sirius snoring quite loudly. Binns didn't give them the slightest bit of notice, keeping his eyes on his book and lecturing without pause.

By the end of the class, only Remus, a Ravenclaw boy he didn't know, and the shy Gryffindor girl named Zoë were still awake. Zoë nudged Lily awake, who had fallen asleep face-down in her notes, and they made their way out of the door. Everyone else was following suit, some people stretching dramatically as if they'd just woken from a leisurely nap. James had snapped awake at the sound of people leaving, but Sirius was still snoring deeply.

James gave him a shove, and he woke up with such force that he yelped and fell out of his chair. He stood up almost as quickly, trying to look casual, and shot James a menacing glance as if it must be his fault. Remus suppressed his laughter, not wanting to anger Sirius, and Peter looked quite horrified that Sirius might have actually hurt himself.

Their next class that afternoon was Herbology with Madame Sprout, where they were taught about the uses of various magical plants, and how to take care of them. The class went by with little incident, and at the end of the day James and Sirius had to congratulate themselves on a whole day gone by without getting into any trouble. In fact, they managed to stay out of trouble the next day too, and Remus noticed with amusement that Sirius was careful to stay awake in their next History of Magic class, obviously trying to avoid further embarrassment.

Their next Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson went by particularly well for Remus. He had successfully mastered every block, counter-curse and disarming technique that they were asked to try, and had won Gryffindor a fair few house points in the process.

"Keep that up, Remus, and you just may be able to make up for all the points me and Sirius lose..." said James, with a wink and a grin.

That night they had their first Astrology lesson at midnight, and Remus couldn't help but glance at the waxing moon every few minutes. It was a painful reminder that there were only a few weeks to go until they'd be able to test out Dumbledore's plan, and he was far from looking forward to it. He was very relieved to get out of the tower and into bed, and thankful that the late lesson had made everyone too tired to want to talk.

* * *

Thursday they had their first flying lesson, along with the Slytherins, and James in particular was incredibly excited. Madame Hooch gave them each a broom and instructed them on the proper mounting and gripping techniques, which James mastered with extreme ease. Remus soon discovered that he had a bit of a fear of heights, and Sirius kept complaining about the comfort-level of broom riding.

"Even with the cushioning charm, it's just too bloody thin, isn't it...not comfortable at all...it's too easy to just sort of slide off, don't you think?" he was saying absently to a perpetually nodding Peter, since James was off swooping around with a few others that had mastered the techniques. Remus was hovering about nine feet off of the ground, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the broom's handle, breathing heavily and trying to remember how to get down.

"You all right, Remus?" he heard a voice say, and turned to see Lily hovering beside him. He almost fell off his broom with a small yelp, but quickly regained his composure and smiled nervously.

"Er...yeah...fine." he said, and Lily raised a brow.

"You're a bad liar, Remus...want me to help you down?" she said with a kind smile, and Remus thought it best to just let her do it...he thought he might be sick if he stayed up there much longer. He nodded, and Lily showed him how to direct the broom slowly to the ground. Once on solid ground he felt a lot better, despite his legs having turned to jelly. He sat on the grass, panting slightly.

"Thanks...never even knew I hated heights before..." he said, feeling beyond embarrassed. Lily just continued to smile without a hint of mocking on her face.

"It's no problem..." she said, as the other Gryffindor girls landed a few feet away and called her over. "well...see you, Remus." she said, and he smiled and nodded. Just as he was standing up, his legs having returned to normal, he heard laughter breaking out in the small group of girls standing a few feet away. His first reaction was that they were laughing at _him_, but when he looked at them he realised they were looking the other way.

He wandered over to join them, curious as to what they were all laughing at, and saw the greasy-haired Slytherin boy, Snape, flailing wildly on his broom which was bucking like an angry horse. Just about everyone had turned to see what was so funny, and almost everyone, Gryffindor and Slytherin alike, were laughing--although none quite so loudly as Vivienne, who was standing right behind Remus with Mau and Zoë, both of whom were giggling behind their hands.

Lily wasn't smiling however, but was instead glaring at Sirius and James, who Remus suddenly realised were both staring, unblinking, at Snape. Sirius was giggling like a maniac, and James was muttering something, a mischievous grin on his face, and hiding what looked suspiciously like a wand behind his cloak. Madame Hooch was standing as close as she could to the misbehaving broom, shouting instructions at Snape, all of which he was trying his best to do and none of which were working.

"Madame Hooch! It's James and Sirius! They're jinxing the broom, Miss!" Lily suddenly screeched, and James jumped, looking shocked, and Snape's broom mysteriously stopped bucking. Sirius attempted to look innocent and confused, and failed miserably. Within seconds Madame Hooch had them both by the arm, shouting so loudly at them that Remus noticed curious faces appearing in the windows of a nearby classroom.

"A whole week of detentions...stupid little slag..." Sirius muttered in potions class later that afternoon, his teeth clenched in anger. James was expressing similar sentiments, and Remus felt himself growing angry. Snape had not turned up for potions that afternoon, most likely out of embarrassment, since he didn't seem particularly hurt, and so Tsepesh had paired him with James and Sirius for the day. Remus had never wanted to be around them less than he did right now. He was quite appalled at their behaviour, and even more angry that they were saying nasty things about Lily, who'd been so nice to him.

"Well...I mean...you _were_ breaking school rules, you know..." said Remus, and Sirius looked as if he'd just been punched in the face. James made to say something, but couldn't find the words. Remus could tell that James probably knew that they deserved their punishment, but he wasn't about to say it in front of Sirius, who was now turning a bright shade of red out of anger as he looked at Remus.

"You...you little...you think I don't know we were breaking rules? I'm not stupid, you know! The point is, we wouldn't have been _caught_ if it wasn't for that swatty little nark...it was just a bit of fun!" hissed Sirius, and Remus could feel himself reaching breaking point. It took all of his self-control to stay calm.

"Didn't look like a bit of fun to Snape..." he said, and Sirius gave a loud bark-like laugh.

"As if I care about that little tosser..." he said, and James nodded.

"He did deserve it, Remus..." James explained.

"Oh, really...what exactly did he do?" Remus asked, and James frowned.

"Never mind..." he said quietly, returning to work on the potion. Remus was about to push the issue, but decided instead to just drop it for now. He wasn't about to lose the first friends he'd ever had over this.

"Fine...just stop blaming Lily...she did the right thing, telling on you. You could've seriously hurt someone." he said, keeping his eyes on the ginger roots he was slicing. James and Sirius kept a tense silence until the end of the lesson, and when Peter rejoined them in the hallway, he quickly became very confused at their behaviour.

"Er...what's going on?" he asked, looking at each of them in turn. After a few moments, in which the rest of the class left the room and were disappearing up the stairs, Sirius finally answered him.

"Lupin was just moaning about us slagging off his _girlfriend_..." he said mockingly, shooting Remus a very insincere smile before slouching off towards the stairs by himself. Peter raised his eyebrows and blinked, looking at Remus.

"What?" he asked, and Remus felt himself growing red.

"I don't have a girlfriend...Sirius and James were just being arrogant little wankers and I told them to shut up, that's all." he explained, a little shocked at the anger in his voice, not to mention his language. Peter looked to James to confirm the story. James shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it..." he said, laughing nervously. "Er...I'd better go after him..." he continued, and ran to the stairs to catch up with Sirius, who was long out of sight. Remus turned to Peter, who still looked very confused.

"Well, come on...I'm hungry." he said, and they both headed for the stairs themselves.

* * *

The next week seemed to fly by, much to Remus' displeasure. He'd never wanted a week to go by more slowly in his life. Snape turned up for the next potions class, but didn't look at or speak to Remus in any way, and merely did his share of the potion preparation in angry silence. Remus might have cared about this treatment if his mind wasn't so preoccupied with his first full moon at Hogwart's.

He spent the afternoons leading up to it doing homework with Peter, since James and Sirius were in detention all week--which he was slightly thankful for as it made it easier for him to avoid Sirius, whose mood seemed to get worse every day. The times he did get to spend with them mostly consisted of chatting with James while Sirius sat moping and Peter shot constant worried glances his way. Remus was quite relieved that Sirius' angst had kept anyone from noticing he himself grow weaker and paler as the full moon got nearer. That was, until Astrology that Wednesday night.

The moon was only a few days from being full, and as soon as Remus reached the top of the astrology tower he could tell that he was going to have a hard time. Only a few minutes into the lesson, Remus noticed a fair few of the students staring at him, some looking quite concerned. James leaned over and asked if he was okay, and Remus nodded.

"You don't look it, mate...you're a bit...pale..." James whispered, and suddenly Professor Sinistra looked over at them, about to tell James off for talking in class. When she saw Remus, however, she forgot all about it.

"Heavens, child...you look like you're about to pass out..." she began, then realised just who the child was, and her eyes darted quickly to the sky outside and then back to Remus. "You'd best get to the hospital wing...you don't look well at all." she continued, and Remus was shooed out of the door to the infirmary. He was quite thankful that everyone was asleep by the time he returned to the common room that night, as he was in no mood to answer a load of questions about his strange behaviour.


	5. Part 1 Chapter 4

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part I: Hogwart's**

Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...

_Chapter 4_

Finally, it was time. After lunch on Friday he received a note to meet Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing, and he left discreetly without a word to his friends, not sure what to tell them. He figured he could use the next few days to think of a good excuse for his absence. He met with Madame Pomfrey while everyone headed to their afternoon classes, and she led him as discreetly as possible to the Whomping Willow, and down into the passage towards the Shrieking Shack.

The place seemed a lot less inviting this time around; cold and damp and shuddering slightly in the cold autumn wind. Remus wondered if the weak-looking walls could even hold him in, but he was sure it was protected by magic and perfectly safe. Madame Pomfrey made sure he was as comfortable as possible and told him she would be back in the mornings to look after him. He thanked her and said goodbye, and she left through the heavy door into the passage. Remus was now alone in the rickety building, and decided that he might as well try and get a few hour's sleep before the moon came out.

The next few days were a blur as usual. He had occasional moments of consciousness where he could remember being fed, or having newly-acquired wounds healed up, but mostly he could only remember pain and an extreme desire to destroy. When he woke up on the final day, he was relieved to see that nothing had gone wrong. He guessed that Madame Pomfrey had already been and gone, since he was bandaged up and there was a half-eaten plate of food by the bed.

He wondered what time it was, and even what day, and as he clambered out of the bed he noticed the terrible mess that had been made of the room. He wandered through the rooms of the house and found them the same; almost every piece of furniture had been scratched, broken or smashed to pieces, and there were claw marks all over many of the doors and windows too. He knew it wasn't something he could help, and was something that was expected, but he still couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for having ruined and destroyed things that didn't really belong to him.

He removed all the bandages that he could, but a few of his wounds still looked angry, so he wrapped them back up. He still felt exceptionally weak and tired, but he figured he should get back to his classes as soon as possible, and so he made his way through the heavy door and down the passage to the grounds. He was very careful to make sure he wasn't noticed leaving the hole at the foot of the Willow, and then proceeded up to the castle.

His first stop was at the infirmary, where Madame Pomfrey was happy to see him up and about so soon. She told him it was late afternoon on Monday, and that the students would be getting out of their last classes at any moment.

"Your friends were in here on Saturday asking about you..." she added, and Remus smiled at the thought. "I told them you had to go home for a family emergency and you'd be back as soon as possible...you'd better be careful around them...I'm told they're right clever boys, and obviously curious, too. You'd best make sure they don't find out anything, Remus." she said seriously, and Remus nodded.

"I'll be careful..." he assured her, and she checked over his wounds before letting him go. He immediately made his way to the Gryffindor common room, hoping to arrive before everyone got out of class. When he got there however, he found that they had beat him to it. James ran over to him, closely followed by Peter. Sirius looked up but didn't leave his seat.

"Remus! Where've you been? You just disappeared after lunch on Friday...we looked everywhere...I reckoned you'd fallen ill again, but Pomfrey said you'd gone home..." James said quickly, and then he noticed the bandages on Remus' arm and the healing cuts on his face. "...what happened?" he asked, and Peter just looked up and him, worried and confused.

"Er...I had to go home because...my mum was ill. She's getting better now though..." he replied in a tired voice, and James nodded.

"Well, I'm glad she's better...but what happened to _you_?" he asked, and Remus hesitated.

"Uh...broom accident. I was practising flying and...um...crashed." he replied, not sure that he would have believed himself if he'd been them. Lily was right, he was a terrible liar. However, James and Peter seemed to buy it.

"Wow...well I hope you're all right...and your mum..." said James.

"I wish you'd have been here for Potions this morning, Remus...they put Snape with me and Avery...it was horrible..." Peter added, and Remus nodded.

"I can only imagine...sorry, Pete." he said, and then followed James and Peter back to their seats. James had apparently been involved in a game of wizard chess with Sirius, who was getting impatient for him to take his turn.

"All right, Remus?" Sirius asked, his eyes still locked on the chess board. Remus sat in an armchair next to James, who was now contemplating his next move.

"Yeah...mum was ill..." he replied, and Sirius cut him off.

"Yeah, I know...I was listening. Glad you're both okay." Sirius said hastily, and Remus couldn't help but feel surprised at this rare show of concern, half-hearted and rather insincere as it was.

* * *

The following weeks seemed to race by, and before long people were eager for the imminent Christmas holidays. Things seemed to steadily improve for Remus as the holidays got nearer; he was improving in potions despite Snape's silent and continually cold and unhelpful attitude, James and Sirius had managed to stay out of trouble most of the time, and there hadn't been much more taunting from the Slytherin crowd. As for Sirius, he seemed almost friendly at times, and Remus was thankful at least that he didn't just ignore him completely as he did Peter.

The holidays came and went, and Remus found it difficult to leave his parents a second time. However, the thought of seeing his friends once more kept the parting from being as difficult as the first. When he got back to school, slightly earlier than most, he found Sirius alone in the common room. He hadn't gone home for the holidays, and had refused James' offer to stay at his place, too; the Black pride at work.

"Hello Sirius...have a good holiday?" Remus asked politely, taking a seat by the fire.

"Wasn't so bad...great opportunity to explore this place a bit...but mostly I was just bored. You?"

"It was nice to see my parents again, but to be honest I was mostly bored, too..." he replied, and Sirius grinned.

"Well, I'm glad someone else had a boring time...James kept writing to me telling me about the excellent time he's having at home..." said Sirius, rolling his eyes.

"Well, he did ask you to go..."

"Yeah, I guess I should've gone. Oh well. Too late now." said Sirius, and at that moment a large group of Gryffindors entered the room, including James.

"Hello! Have fun?" he asked, and Remus nodded half-heartedly.

"I found some rather interesting things around the school..." said Sirius with a grin, and James smiled in turn.

"Excellent..." said James, and Remus got a bad feeling that this could only mean trouble.


	6. Part 1 Chapter 5

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part I: Hogwart's**

Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...

_Chapter 5_

The first week back went by quite well, and Remus even managed to get a few words out of Snape, his forced potions partner. Of course, most of these words consisted of phrases like _shut up_ and _you're doing that all wrong_, but it was a start at least. In the time before Christmas holidays Remus had found himself starting to pity the greasy Slytherin. Remus had heard a lot of rumours about the boy's bad home life, and it was well-known that he knew more curses than most seventh years before he even came to the school. He certainly wasn't popular even in his own house, and the few friends he did have seemed to keep him around only so he would help them out with their homework. Of course, there was a good reason why he was unpopular; he was a thoroughly unpleasant person, and when he did bother to talk to anyone it was usually only to insult them.

"Lupin, seriously...shut up...pay attention to what you're doing and quit bothering me." said Snape towards the end of a potions class. Remus sighed, giving up on attempting pleasant conversation, and continued to work on the task at hand. He was in high spirits that day, as the previous class had been their weekly flying lesson, and Remus had finally managed to get off the ground without feeling physically ill. Lily was the one who had helped him do it. James, Peter and Sirius had long ago mastered the art of flying and were usually having far too much fun racing each other up and down the courtyard to help him out. Madame Hooch worked with him when she could, but she had a whole class to deal with, and couldn't very well spend all her time on some silly little boy with vertigo.

But Lily had come to his aid, and now he had successfully managed to overcome his fear of heights. Or at least, of small heights. He still preferred to stay no more than ten feet away from the ground, and had only managed to handle speeds of around fifteen miles per hour at the most. At first he'd been terribly embarrassed by his ineptitude, but Lily was so non-judgemental in helping him that he soon got over it. Of course, he did find it very hard to live down the joking from Sirius and James, who thought it awfully amusing that he needed a girl to help him. Remus wasn't quite sure just what they had against girls; Lily was definitely a better flyer than Sirius at any rate. And a great deal nicer, too.

Whatever wonderful things Sirius had managed to discover during the holidays seemed to occupy most of the spare time he and James had, and Peter would join them if he could convince them to let him. Remus didn't particularly feel any need to join in these expeditions, not being the type to ask for trouble, but occasionally he would find himself swept into them somehow.

One such time had ended with Remus being given his first detention. Filch the caretaker was busy cleaning a corridor in which Peeves, the school's nuisance of a poltergeist, had smashed a great deal of ink pots. Knowing this, Sirius and James had decided that they should search for interesting confiscated items in Filch's office, and had demanded that Remus come along to serve as a lookout. Remus was sure he didn't want to get involved in such a scheme, but before he knew it he found himself following Sirius, James, and Peter down the corridors, quite unsure of how he'd been talked into it. They reached the end of the corridor in which Filch's office was located, and they all stopped.

"Right...Remus, stay here and keep an eye out for Filch...Peter, go to the other end and do the same..." said James, glancing cautiously around him. "Oh, and don't forget to keep an eye out for that cat of his, too...she'll run right off and tell him if she catches us."

"Yeah but...what do we do if we see someone?" asked Peter, looking worried, his watery eyes darting from side to side nervously. James thought hard for a minute, since this was obviously something he hadn't thought to plan. Sirius leaned casually against the wall of the corridor, content to let James think things through on his own. He began to whistle.

"Whistle! Nice one, Sirius...if you see someone coming, whistle. We'll hear you and get out of there. Right...we're wasting valuable time..." said James, and motioned for Sirius to follow him to the office door. Peter ran enthusiastically to the other end of the corridor, leaving Remus alone and pondering the stupidity of getting involved in this plan.

After only a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, Remus heard footsteps, and his heart skipped a beat. Filch appeared at the end of the corridor, and Remus started whistling--only, no sound came out. It hadn't occurred to him that he didn't know how to whistle. He considered running, but thought that abandoning his friends was probably not the best thing to do. Instead, he decided that talking very loudly and trying his best to stall Filch was the only available plan of action.

"Lupin? What're you doin' here? You children shouldn't be hangin' around the corridors...don't you 'ave someplace to be?" said Filch, a very unpleasant smile on his face as if contemplating suitable punishments.

"Er...I GOT LOST..." said Remus, rather loudly, and Filch gave him a strange look. They were just out of sight of the corridor containing Filch's office, and Remus hoped that one of his friends had heard him.

"Lost? Where were you goin' then?" asked Filch, the unpleasant smile returning. Remus hesitated, and heard a door creak open. Unfortunately, Filch heard it too. "AHA! So that's what you're up to!" he shouted, grabbing Remus by the arm and running to his office just in time to see James and Sirius disappear around the corner at the other end of the hallway. Peter was nowhere to be seen, and Remus figured he must have scampered away at the first sign of danger. Filch pelted full-speed towards the two retreating students, but failed to catch them and instead returned to where Remus stood with his eyes wide as saucers in fear.

"Well now...this is interesting indeed...I think you ought to come with me to Professor McGonagall's office!" said Filch, with more than a small amount of malicious joy.

Remus followed the caretaker in silence. He was quite terrified, having never been in trouble at school before, and McGonagall, their Head of House, was a particularly strict woman who Remus certainly had no desire to anger.

They reached McGonagall's office, and Filch explained the situation at great length while Remus stared at the floor in shame. McGonagall looked at Remus from over her square spectacles, shaking her head, her mouth a thin, hard line. She motioned for Filch to leave, which he grudgingly did.

"I never thought I'd see you in here of all people, Mr. Lupin. Considering your situation I find it very hard to accept that you'd be willing to risk your position here at school..." she said, and Remus frowned, trying his best to fight back tears of shame.

"...I'm sorry, Professor." he said in a very small voice, and McGonagall crossed her arms.

"I can only assume that your friends, Mr. Black and Mr. Potter, were the two that Filch saw escaping around the corner...and I'll bet they probably talked you into this scheme of theirs..." she continued, but Remus said nothing. "However, I have no proof. But if I were you I would think long and hard about these 'friends' of yours and whether or not you think that they and their schemes are more important than your education. We've risked a lot to have you here, Remus." she said. Remus continued to frown and fight back the tears, saying nothing for fear of losing the battle.

"Well, all there is to do now is find a suitable punishment for you. You will serve detention tomorrow night at nine o'clock with Professor Tsepesh. He told me he could use some help organising and cleaning his classroom." said McGonagall, crossing her arms. He couldn't imagine that Tsepesh would enjoy having one of his worst students help around his classroom, and he was sure he wouldn't enjoy the experience either. "Now, off to bed with you...and I had better not see you in my office under these circumstances again!"

Remus made his way to the Gryffindor common room and flopped into an armchair, arms crossed and face set in a resolute frown. Sirius, James and Peter were sitting on the other side of the room, watching him silently, until Sirius finally spoke up.

"It's your own fault, you know...I mean honestly...why didn't you tell us you couldn't whistle!" said Sirius, rather harshly.

"Well...I didn't know..." said Remus quietly, and Sirius scoffed.

"Yeah, well...we almost got caught because of you..." he spat, and Remus turned to look at him in disbelief.

"You almost got caught? WHO CARES! I DID get caught! You lot ran away and I had to take all the blame!" he yelled, standing up and looking about ready to rip Sirius' head off.

"Sheesh, Remus...you wanna calm down? It's not that big a deal..." said Sirius, rather taken aback. James and Peter just listened in with guilty faces. Remus crossed his arms and took a few steps towards Sirius.

"Not to you perhaps...but I actually CARE about my education. And I don't like getting in trouble. I TOLD you I didn't want to do it in the first place..." he said calmly, and Sirius grinned.

"Well, why did you then?" he said. Remus hesitated, then sighed.

"I don't know...just leave me alone...all of you. I'm going to bed."

* * *

The next day Remus refused to speak to his friends, and even Snape noticed something was wrong in potions class that afternoon.

"Not going to attempt your usual annoying chit-chat today, Lupin?" sneered Snape, and Remus shot him a venomous look before continuing to work on the potion. "I'll take that as a 'no', then...good." he said with a grin, before doing the same.

James and Peter tried again and again to get Remus to talk to them during dinner that night, but to no avail. Sirius didn't seem so eager to rekindle a friendship, however, and did a fine job of mutually ignoring Remus. When nine o'clock rolled around, Remus headed for his detention in the dungeons without a word.

He was certainly not looking forward to returning to the potions classroom, and he found himself hesitating at the front door, his fist held about an inch from the wooden door in preparation to knock. Suddenly, the door swung open, and Professor Tsepesh loomed over Remus, raising a dark eyebrow.

"You won't do me any good standing outside my door all evening, Mr. Lupin...come inside, why don't you?" said Tsepesh, his fierce golden eyes boring into Remus, who obliged with dread in his heart.

"Sir...what exactly is it that I'm going to be doing?" he asked in a small, hoarse voice, and Tsepesh gestured towards the ingredients cupboard.

"You students never put anything back where it belongs...it's chaos in there, so I need you to reorganise it. Think you can manage it?" explained Tsepesh with a grin, and Remus nodded and made his way to the cupboard. Tsepesh sat at his desk and tied his long hair back, then began to scribble on a piece of parchment

Chaos was the perfect term for it. He never seemed to notice during class when using it, but the place was truly a mess. He began the tedious work without hesitation, wanting nothing more than to get it over with. After about an hour of nothing but the sound of Tsepesh's quill and of jars and pots and such being moved around, Remus was startled to see Tsepesh standing over him, and almost dropped a jar of leeches.

"Going well?" asked Tsepesh, and Remus nodded.

"I think I'm almost finished..."

"Good, good...I have things to do..." he said absently, then turned his golden eyes on Remus. "I've noticed you're doing much better in potions these days...I've been keeping an eye on you to make sure you're not just letting Severus do all the work..." said Tsepesh, and Remus could only nod, not really sure how to react to the conversation. Tsepesh returned to his desk.

"The full moon's next week, isn't it?" he asked suddenly, and Remus jumped up.

"What?" asked Remus, startled by the question. "Well, yes...but..."

"It's all right, Remus...surely Dumbledore told you that the staff know about your condition. I was merely confirming that it was next week...I can give you the make-up work now if you like...for the class you'll be missing." continued Tsepesh, and Remus blinked.

"Well, all right...but...should you really be doing this? I mean, talking about it like this?" he asked, finishing up his task and closing the cupboard.

"I see no reason why not...personally I don't think you should have to keep it a secret at all...but, such is the way of the world..." Tsepesh replied, staring off into space for a moment. Remus raised a brow.

"Sir?"

"Hmm? Oh, here...your make-up work." he said, handing Remus a roll of parchment.

"Oh...thanks." said Remus before turning to head for the door. "Am I all done here, then?"

"Yes, quite...I trust you'll stay out of trouble from now on..." warned Tsepesh, giving Remus a stern look before returning to his writing.

* * *

The year had almost ended by the time Remus saw fit to speak to his friends again. He'd done a fine job of avoiding and ignoring them for a few weeks, but found himself growing very lonely and unhappy as time went by. Finally, he decided enough was enough. Nothing was worth losing the only friends he'd ever had.

James and Peter happily accepted him back into the fold, both full of apologies and promises not to let similar things happen in the future. Even Sirius seemed glad to be back on speaking terms with him, and not only because by this time he was probably desperate for Remus' History of Magic notes.

At long last, their first year at Hogwart's was over, and as the four friends said their good-byes at the train platform with promises of letters and visits during the coming weeks, Sirius pulled Remus aside.

"I know your secret." he whispered, and Remus furrowed his brow.

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about...and don't worry, I'm not telling anyone...not even James. But _you_ should, you know..." he said with a grin, and Remus just stared blankly.

"...I have no idea what you're talking about, Sirius." He lied through his teeth, and Sirius just winked.

"Sure you don't...see you later, Remus."


	7. Part 2 Chapter 1

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part II: The Wolf Discovered**

_Lupin's second year at Hogwart's..._

_Chapter 1_

The name on everyone's lips that summer was Lord Voldemort, a self-styled "saviour of wizardkind" who claimed that the community should be cleansed of "impurity". No one had ever heard of him before; it was as if he had come out of nowhere, which seemed to strengthen his claim as some sort of saviour somehow. Everyone knew he was a very powerful wizard, although no one knew _how_ they knew--likely just hearsay and speculation since, by all accounts, no one had ever actually seen the man.

Ever since his arrival in public knowledge there had been an abnormally large number of disappearances, all concerning muggle-born or half-blood individuals, and most people attributed these disappearances to Lord Voldemort. Of course, many people thought it a terrible thing, and Lord Voldemort a criminal--but an alarmingly large amount of the population began to think of him as a sort of hero, in full agreement with his idea of re-establishing purity in the wizarding community. The Lupin family, however, did not.

As a half-blood family, they found themselves growing concerned. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were particularly worried about their son returning to school--life was hard enough for him as a werewolf without the added half-blood prejudices he would likely now have to endure. Remus himself worried about this very same thing, but nothing short of death could keep him from returning to school and his friends.

It was almost as though he had never left. He hadn't been able to visit any of his friends during the summer holidays, but the four of them fell back into easy conversation as if they'd been away for no less than a few days. Sirius seemed a great deal more cheerful than he usually was after a break from school, due to spending the summer with James instead of going home. Peter had stayed with them for a few weeks too, and Remus found himself feeling slightly jealous when they all described the fun they'd had together. Remus had of course been invited, but his parents were not about to let him leave their sight, what with the disappearances and the more obvious danger of his lycanthropy.

The school year began the same as ever; they welcomed the new Gryffindor students, enjoyed the marvellous feast, and waited in anticipation for the start of term announcements. Sure enough, Dumbledore stood and began to speak. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and everyone seemed to be waiting for him to say something about Lord Voldemort--but he disappointed them. He gave the usual announcements, ushered them all off to bed and took his seat once more.

"I was sure he'd say something..." James muttered as they made their way up to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"I guess there's really nothing for him to say that we wouldn't have already heard in the papers, you know?" Added Peter, and James shrugged.

"I heard that Zoë's mother is one of the people that's gone missing..." whispered Sirius, "maybe Dumbledore doesn't want to draw attention to the whole thing...since we've got people here that have been directly affected and everything..."

"Plus, I'm sure everyone's perfectly safe here at Hogwart's." Said Peter, although there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. The four of them arrived at their room and began to unpack their belongings in a sort of thoughtful silence.

"Poor Zoë..." said Remus finally, and Sirius shrugged.

"I'm not so sure I'd mind if my mum went missing...I rather wish she would, to be honest." He said with a wistful grin, and James rolled his eyes.

"Yeah...well, she supports him doesn't she...so I doubt you'll get your wish!" He said, and Sirius grimaced.

"Don't remind me...I'm just glad that this summer I only had to spend a week with that bunch of psychos I call a family. How on earth did nice people like your parents ever come to be friends with them, that's what I'd like to know..." mumbled Sirius, and James shrugged. "Well, I know I'm safe at least...there's never been a single muggle in the family as far as I know..." continued Sirius, and Peter nodded.

"Same here..." he said.

"I think I had a great great grandmother that was a muggle...but I doubt something that far back matters anymore...so I guess we're all pretty safe. Well, except you, Remus..." said James, and Remus nodded.

"Luckily not many people know my family, though. I think you lot are the only people around here that even know my dad's a muggle...well, other than the staff, I suppose." He said with a yawn that quickly spread to the other occupants of the room.

"Yep, I'm sure you'll be fine...besides, like Peter said--Hogwart's is safe. Well, time for bed I think..." said James, and the others became aware of just how tired they were, and agreed.

Remus found himself unable to sleep that night.

* * *

Classes began the next morning with a double potions lesson, and Remus was happy to discover that he no longer had to have Snape as a lab partner; Tsepesh thought that he and Peter had made enough progress to be partners again. Luckily they managed not to prove him wrong during the day's lesson.

The rest of their classes were much the same, if not a bit easier this time around since everyone now knew the basics of each course. Sirius, James and Remus glided through their classes with ease, and helped Peter to do the same. Sirius and James continued to get up to their usual activities, but this year they had gained the common sense and skill not to get caught quite so often. Remus and Peter began to join them in their frequent night-time wanderings more and more, and Remus found that bending the rules a little wasn't so bad after all; in fact, it was rather exhilarating, as long as you didn't get caught of course. And they barely ever did.

When Christmas holidays finally arrived, the four of them decided to stay at Hogwart's. They were the only Gryffindors to do so that year, so they had the common room entirely to themselves; something which suited them just fine. Remus couldn't help but feel slightly guilty about not going home to his parents, and he had to work quite hard to convince them that he would be okay staying at school for the holidays (for one thing, there would be no full moon during their holiday weeks--something for which Remus felt extraordinarily lucky). Eventually they had given in, and Remus was somewhat relieved to discover that Peter at least had similar trouble with his own parents. Sirius' family preferred that he not return home for the holidays, and James was pretty much allowed to do whatever he wanted, so there they were.

They spent most of Christmas completing their exploration of the castle. They had discovered a few tempting secret passageways, but had decided to save them for later expeditions, not wanting to use up all the adventurous potential that the school held so soon in their stay there. They had also managed to discover the way into the kitchens; something which pleased Sirius and Peter especially. By the end of the holidays, the four of them were quite confident that they probably knew more about the school grounds than anyone else, other than Filch and Dumbledore of course. All in all it seemed to Remus that this may just end up being the best year of his life.


	8. Part 2 Chapter 2

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part II: The Wolf Discovered**

_Lupin's second year at Hogwart's..._

_Chapter 2_

Although Remus had managed to get away without a full moon during Christmas, they weren't back in classes for long before it was time. He'd gotten away with his usual excuses in the months before the holidays, and this time it seemed he would once again. However, when he returned to the castle after the cycle had finished, his heart sank to see his three friends waiting for him in the Gryffindor common room. Normally this wouldn't have been odd, but it happened to be three o'clock in the morning, and even for James and Sirius that was a late hour to be hanging around in the common room.

"Er...hello there...what are you lot doing up?" said Remus in an almost inaudible rasping whisper--all the howling and growling during the full moon always did this to his voice; usually he'd have taken a potion to help sort it out, but because of the late hour he had decided not to bother Madame Pomfrey, and to sleep it off instead. Peter shifted in his chair.

"Waiting for you, actually..." said Sirius with a grin that Remus wasn't sure he liked. James was watching Remus with an overly-interested expression on his face, and Peter looked a little bit frightened, but was blatantly interested too. Remus shifted his weight nervously.

"Waiting for me?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

Sirius didn't answer, and there was a short silence as James and Peter glanced at Sirius and then back to Remus.

"Sirius told us something...and we want to know if it's true..." said James, and Peter nodded. Sirius began to take a great interest in his fingernails and tried to pretend he was oblivious to everything around him. Remus felt his heart skip a beat.

"Wha...told you something? What...Sirius...what did you tell them!" Remus yelled, although in his condition the yell was more of a feeble screech. Sirius bit his lip.

"Well...I didn't mean to...and I don't know for sure anyway, but frankly I think it's pretty obvious..."

"He said you're a werewolf!" Interrupted Peter, and James nodded excitedly as Sirius began to sink into his chair. Remus was speechless. He was vaguely aware of his mouth hanging open, but made no effort to remedy the situation.

Finally, after a painful few moments of silence Remus composed himself, taking a deep breath and sitting in a chair near the others. James and Peter watched his every move, waiting for some sort of reply as Sirius tried to hide in his armchair and feign ignorance.

"Okay Sirius. So you've figured it out. I don't even care how you did...but why did you have to go and tell everyone?" said Remus, very calmly despite the rage he was currently feeling. Sirius sat up.

"I didn't tell _everyone_...I only told James and Peter, I swear...look, I'm really sorry..."

"Oh...sorry, are you? I don't think so...but you will be, you git..." hissed Remus, as he leapt for Sirius' chair and tipped it over. James and Peter ducked out of the way as Remus then proceeded to bear down on him, fists and feet flying, as Sirius lay curled in a tight ball on the floor yelling apologies and begging him to stop.

The scuffle didn't last long, what with Remus already exhausted and in no condition for this sort of physical exertion. James and Peter managed to drag him away from Sirius, who sat up and wiped the blood from his nose, looking quite shocked. Suddenly the door to the girl's dormitories flew open and Alice Frost, one of the Gryffindor prefects, stormed furiously into the room in her dressing gown.

"What the hell is going on down here? Why aren't you lot in bed!" She shrieked, and walked over to help Sirius to his feet. "Are you all right?" She asked, and he nodded, holding his nose to stop the blood flow.

"Sorry Alice...we were just playing around...got a bit out of hand..." said James who, along with Peter, still had a firm grip on Remus' arm. Alice shook her head.

"I'll never understand you boys...so violent! I mean, what's the point?" she said, and Sirius shrugged. "Get off to bed, will you...do you need to see the nurse, Sirius?"

"Gno...I'll be fide..." said Sirius, still holding his nose. Alice scrutinised him for a minute, then turned to Remus.

"What about you...are you all right?" she asked, and Remus nodded. Alice gave an exasperated sigh and shook her head. "Well, off to bed then...all of you." She said, quite forcefully, and marched back up to bed.

Sirius sat in an armchair that wasn't laying on it's side and gladly accepted a handkerchief from Peter in order to begin mopping up the blood. James let Remus go when he was sure he'd calmed down, and Remus flopped onto the floor, breathing heavily and wincing with pain.

"Okay...are you quite finished, then? He said he was sorry...and Peter and I aren't about to go and tell anyone, are we Peter?" Said James in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Nope...wouldn't dream of it." Peter replied as he helped Sirius nurse his wounds.

"Aren't you guys...scared or anything?" Remus said weakly, and James smiled.

"Not at all...it doesn't change who you are, Remus. Well, except during the full moon, I guess...but what does it matter?" Said James as he helped Remus to his feet and to an armchair.

"Well...most people seem to think it's a big deal..."

"Nah...so you become a bloodthirsty monster a few days a month...every girl on earth does that after a certain age, and no one cares..." replied James, with a cheeky grin. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Not quite the same thing, James. But thanks, I guess...for being okay with it." Said Remus, rubbing the bruises forming on his arms where James and Peter had dragged him away from Sirius.

"No need to thank us...I really am sorry to find out you have to put up with something like that...kinda puts my problems in perspective..." James continued, and Sirius pushed Peter away from him, becoming irritated by his help. His nose had stopped bleeding now, and he was as cleaned up as he could be without changing his shirt. He looked at Remus with a hopeful smile.

"Forgive me?" He asked, and Remus frowned for a moment, thinking. Finally he nodded.

"Yeah, okay...just don't tell anyone else, or I swear I will kill you. Nobody's supposed to know...Dumbledore'd murder me if he found out. How did you figure it out, anyway?" Said Remus, and Sirius grinned.

"I thought you didn't care..."

"Just tell me, you tosser!"

"Fine, fine...it wasn't hard...all it took was to notice that you always left during the full moon, really. Plus...your excuses were really pitiful, Remus. You're a bad liar. I could tell something was up from the very first time you left last year." Explained Sirius, and Remus frowned.

"Think anyone else will figure it out?"

"I doubt it, if they haven't managed to for this long. I mean, James here is a scholarly fellow, and _he_ didn't figure it out, either. Most people aren't as observant and fabulously intelligent as I am..." said Sirius with a grin, and James rolled his eyes.

"Arrogant git...anyway...Remus, we've made a decision." Said James, and Remus raised a brow.

"A decision about what?"

"We're going to do something for you. Sirius has been looking into it for a while apparently, and we think we just might be able to pull it off..."

"Do I even want to know?" Remus asked, and Sirius grinned.

"We're going to become animagi!" He said, with more than a hint of excitement in his voice. Remus blinked.

"Animagi?"

"Yeah...like McGonagall...the spells are bloody hard, but I think we can do it. Then we'll be able to turn into animals and keep you company...werewolves only attack humans, right?" Explained Sirius, the grin still plastered to his face. Remus blinked again.

"Yeah, I guess that's true...I wouldn't be myself, you understand...my mind completely leaves me when I transform...but, you'd all really do that? It's a lot of extra work..." Asked Remus, beginning to feel a bit better about the whole situation. His three friends nodded.

"Of course...besides, it'll be so great to be able to turn into an animal...I can't wait!" Said James, almost bouncing with excitement. Remus managed a smile.

"Try it _my_ way, and you may not think it's so great..." He said with a sigh. "Well...as long as it's not too dangerous...if you really think you lot can manage it, it _would_ be nice to know someone's out there with me...but either way, I'm just so glad you're all okay with this...not having to keep the secret from you anymore is going to make things a lot easier..."

"Maybe you should be thanking me for figuring it out and telling them, then?" Said Sirius with a smirk.

"You'd better shut up...I swear I'll hurt you again..." Remus replied without a trace of a smile. The smirk quickly left Sirius's face and he made an apologetic gesture. "Come on...I'm exhausted, and in some rather serious pain...anyway, I think it's time we all went to bed, before Alice comes back down here...she can be well scary..."


	9. Part 2 Chapter 3

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part II: The Wolf Discovered**

_Lupin's second year at Hogwart's..._

_Chapter 3_

The following weeks seemed to fly by. Sirius, James and Peter spent all their spare time trying to learn the animagus spells, and Remus spent most of his time doing homework, which suited him just fine. It soon became apparent that it was going to take a lot longer to learn the animagus spells than his three friends had ever imagined, but they continued to work at it whenever they had the chance. As for Remus, he was feeling happier than he'd ever felt; being able to talk openly about his lycanthropy with his friends was like lifting a huge weight from his shoulders, and it brought the four of them closer than ever.

The three animagi-in-training soon discovered that they would need a few books from the Restricted Section of the library in order to continue their study of the advanced animagus spells, and so one evening they left Remus to his homework to see about getting them. They knew that no teacher would give them permission for something like that; particularly because animagi were required to register with the Ministry of Magic, and the three of them certainly did not plan on doing so. Instead they would have to 'borrow' them without permission.

Remus was still working on his transfiguration homework with Vivienne and Mau when his three friends came back through the portrait hole, looking as though they'd just been to a funeral.

"What happened?" Remus asked, and Sirius shooed away Vivienne and Mau with some difficulty so that the four of them could talk in private.

"Filch caught us...we've got detentions for about a month!" said James bitterly. Peter looked like he might cry at any moment.

"But they couldn't tell what we were up to, at least...it looks like we're going to have to find a better way to get a hold of those books..." explained Sirius.

"Wow...I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault, Remus...it's not so bad anyway; we just have to help Hagrid with the school vegetables and stuff...and weed the greenhouses..." said James, and Peter nodded.

"Anyway...I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm knackered, and in no mood to do potions homework, that's for sure..." said Sirius, yawning widely. "I'm off to bed. Besides, we've got to be out at Hagrid's early in the morning...what a waste of a Saturday..."

The three of them said goodnight to Remus and made their way up to their dorm room. Shortly afterwards, Vivienne and Mau returned, both looking more than a little offended.

"Thinks he can just push us around like that...what was that all about anyway?" asked Vivienne, and Remus opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated.

"Er...they got themselves in trouble again...you know how they are..."

"Yeah, I do...why on earth do you hang out with them, Remus? You're too...nice. To be hanging around with horrible blokes like them, I mean..." Vivienne asked, as Mau nodded absently and continued to write her rudely interrupted potions essay. Remus shrugged.

"They're perfectly nice to me." he replied, and Vivienne rolled her eyes.

"Really? I heard Sirius beat you up..."

"What? No...that's not true! Well, we did get in this one fight, like a month ago...but if anything _I_ beat _him_ up..."

"Ooookaaay..." said Vivienne, concealing laughter. Mau also seemed to have the grin of someone trying not to burst out in a fit of giggles. Remus shot them both a venomous look and returned to his homework, intent on ignoring the two girls.

"Look...sorry, Remus. It's just...well...you don't really seem like the violent type..."

"...You'd be surprised..."

"...Sorry. How are you getting on with your potions essay?"

"Almost done..."

"Really? I think I'm a bit stuck..." she continued, setting down her quill. "...Er, didn't you have detention with Professor Tsepesh one time last year?"

"Yeah...why?" he replied, finishing his essay and rolling it up.

"Lucky..."

"What?"

"Oh...nothing..." Vivienne said, turning a bright shade of red. "It's just...I think I'd rather like to have detention with him..." she continued, giggling nervously. Mau rolled her eyes.

"She fancies him...it's disgusting. A _teacher_...he's got to be at least three times your age, Viv..." she said, and Remus couldn't help but laugh as Vivienne's face grew ever more red.

"Shut up! It's not funny..."

"Sure it isn't...heh...but anyway, do you want some help with your essay?" Remus asked, and Vivienne shook her head.

"No, it's okay...I'll get Lily to help me later."

"Where is she, anyway? I haven't seen her or Zoë since class..."

"Oh...well, they've been up in our room all afternoon. Zoë's a bit...shaken up...about her mum and all. They think they may have found a body, but they're not sure yet. Lily's been comforting her or something. I prefer to stay out of it--I'm no use with people when they're crying. Makes me uncomfortable..."

"That's horrible..."

"I can't help it! I'm no good with emotions..."

"No...I mean, about her mum."

"Oh. Right. Well, I think they're letting her go home early because of it. I'm sure she'll be fine. It probably wasn't even her mum…" said Vivienne, not really convincing herself or anyone else, and an odd silence followed. Finally, Remus broke it.

"Er...anyway, I think I'm going to head off to bed...got a lot to do tomorrow and…um...g'night."

"'Night, Remus!" said the girls, in unison, as Remus made his way up to the dorm room, where his three friends were already sound asleep.

* * *

He woke up the following morning to an empty room; Sirius, James and Peter were already out with Hagrid serving their detention. Remus pulled on some trousers and an old T-shirt and made his way down to breakfast alone, wondering what exactly his friends were being forced to do. It was rather late in the morning, and only a few people were in the great hall, and none of them Gryffindors. He sat at the lonely table and picked at some bacon and a piece of toast while reading over his potions essay from the night before, to correct any mistakes.

"You've got that formula wrong..." said a sharp voice, and Remus turned to see Snape looking over his shoulder.

"I do? Oh...yeah, you're right...thanks."

"No problem. Where are your idiot friends, then?" Snape asked with a sneer, as Remus corrected his mistake and turned in his seat to face him.

"Where are _yours_?" he asked in reply, immediately regretting his harsh tone. Snape's sneer had vanished, and his face looked almost forcibly blank.

"They're outside playing some foolish game with that tree."

"Tree?"

"The one that moves when you go near it. Planted last year..."

"Oh..._that_ tree..." Remus said, beginning to feel a little panicky, but hiding it well. "They're playing a game with it?"

"Yes...trying to see who can get closest to it without being killed, or something like that...as I said--foolish. I wasn't interested in joining them."

"Probably a wise decision...my friends are in detention for digging around in the restricted section without permission..." said Remus, and Snape raised a brow.

"Really? What were they doing in there?"

"Er...not sure, actually. They never said." Remus replied, offering Snape his last strip of bacon, which he refused.

"Well...I've got to go see Muldrake about some homework..."

"Okay...bye then." said Remus, and the boy merely nodded and walked away. It was a few minutes before Remus realised that he'd just had an almost normal, civil conversation with Severus Snape.


	10. Part 2 Chapter 4

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part II: The Wolf Discovered**

_Lupin's second year at Hogwart's..._

_Chapter 4_

The next few weeks were quite lonely for Remus. His friends spent every spare moment they had in detention, and he was forced to spend every moment of _his_ with the girls. They weren't terrible company most of the time, but he did find that much of the conversation went over his head. Plus, he got sick to death of hearing how much everyone fancied Sirius. Apart from Lily, who seemed to have more sense.

"But he's so nasty to you! How could you possibly like someone that acts that way?" Lily asked, and the others replied with rolling eyes.

"Because he's _gorgeous_, Lily! Besides, I'm sure he's not all bad, once you get to know him." Said Mau.

"I wouldn't bet on that..." Remus muttered, and Lily grinned.

"You're too good for them, Remus." She said, which momentarily froze him. Then he regained composure and shrugged casually.

"More like the other way around...even Peter's more popular than I am..."

"Yeah, well...popularity isn't everything. You're a better person than they are." She reassured him, and Remus felt himself growing very red.

The topic was soon changed, much to his relief, and he decided that he should probably try and spend more time alone.

* * *

The following afternoon Remus wandered down to the lakeside in search of peace and solitude, away from Sirius-worship and homework and the snide comments of Slytherin upperclassmen. He smiled as he surveyed the area and discovered there wasn't another soul in sight. It was a rather chilly spring day, and everyone else seemed inclined to stay indoors.

Remus took a seat by a large oak tree and read. He'd always loved to read, but since starting school he didn't seem to have as much time for it; he was always either reading for classes, doing homework, or getting up to mischief with his friends. Now that said friends were sequestered in detention, he decided he might as well take the chance to get back into some of his favourite books.

He was deeply absorbed in one of them when a strange noise broke his concentration. He glanced up, noting that it had grown quite dark all of a sudden (or had he been here longer than he thought?), and looked around for the source of the sound. The second he began to think his mind had been playing tricks on him, there it was again. Coming from the lake. _Probably just the squid_, he though to himself, but as he stared out at the expanse of dark, still water he saw something. Something that definitely was not a squid. In fact, it looked more like a very pale young woman, swimming about two dozen feet from the lake shore.

"Er...hello?" He called out, but she didn't answer. A strange fear swept over him as he looked at her. She almost seemed to smile, and a slender white hand breached the surface of the water and beckoned to him, and he found himself drawn to the woman despite his fear of her.

He took a few steps towards the lake, stopping momentarily only when he heard a strange, airy voice call his name. It sounded like a breath carried on the wind, and he wondered if he'd imagined it. The logical side of his brain kept screaming at him to run back towards Hogwart's, but he couldn't make himself move, except towards the pale woman in the lake.

He was now knee-deep in the water, and could see that the woman was indeed smiling, though in a sad sort of way, and her eyes shone with a strange green fire. She began to drift slowly towards him, arms outstretched. He felt an intense urge to embrace her, and reached out, but a hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backwards, and in a flash she was gone.

He was dragged out of the water and thrown to the ground, looking up to see a tall figure standing between him and the lake, looking out towards the horizon. Then the figure turned, and Remus realised it was Professor Tsepesh.

"Are you alright?" He asked, and Remus nodded. The events of the last few minutes were growing dim in his mind, like a dream. He saw his book lying on the ground nearby, as if it had been dropped or thrown there. Had he done that? Tsepesh helped him up, and retrieved the book.

"You dropped this, I think...It didn't touch you, did it?"

"What, the book?" Remus asked, confused.

"No, no...the, uh, woman...out there."

"Oh...no, she didn't. Why'd you call her and 'it'? What does it matter if I touched her anyway...I wanted to."

"I know...but be glad you didn't." Tsepesh replied, placing a bony hand on Remus's shoulder. He shuddered slightly at the man's touch, but couldn't really pinpoint why.

"Was that a mermaid?" He asked, brushing lake weeds from his soggy trousers. The professor released his shoulder and shook his head.

"No...there _are_ mermaids in the lake, but that was definitely not one of them."

"How can you tell?"

"If you'd ever seen a real mermaid, you would know. They aren't nearly so attractive as that." Tsepesh replied with a cold smile, wrapping his large cloak around Remus's shoulders.

"Thank you, Sir...but if it wasn't a mermaid, then what was it?"

"A rusalka, Remus...and one of the many reasons we don't like you children to be out after dark." the tall man replied, motioning for Remus to follow him back towards the castle.

"Is she dangerous, then?" Remus asked, and Tsepesh stopped and turned with an impatient sigh.

"Yes...well, to the male gender at least."

"Why only to boys?"

"Rusalki are the spirits of murdered women. They exist solely to lure young men into the water and drown them, in order to avenge their own deaths at the hands of those they loved."

"They were killed by people they loved?"

"Yes..."

"That's awful...do all women that die like that become...er..."

"Rusalki, Remus...and no. And before you ask, no, nobody knows why it occurs in some cases and not in others. Look, it's late, and I must get you back to the castle. No more questions!" Tsepesh said, his voice stern. He held up the book he was holding, the one that Remus had dropped. "Greek mythology?" He asked, returning the book to Remus, who shrugged.

"Yeah...my parents would read it to me at night sometimes..." Remus said absently.

"Ah..." Tsepesh said, noticing Remus's distant expression. "Is something on your mind? You seem troubled."

"I just...well, I can't help but wonder who she was. I mean, whatever happened to her must have happened nearby, don't you think?"

"Don't trouble yourself with it...this is a very old school, and we've had a great many tragedies occur here over the centuries. It would be almost impossible to pinpoint this particular one in the records."

"But isn't there something that someone could do to help her?"

"There are a few stories concerning the dispelling of rusalki spirits...but they are only stories. Don't think people haven't tried. She's been here for a long time, and caused quite a few tragedies of her own. It's really best to forget about it, Remus."

"Oh..."

"I mean it...I know what you and those friends of yours are like. If I, or anyone else for that matter, catch any of you out here after dark again, it will not be taken lightly. Because of what you've been through tonight, I'm not going to punish you this time. Don't make me regret that decision." Tsepesh said as they approached the castle doors.

The entry hall was empty and quiet, what with everyone else having been sent to their respective quarters for the evening. They stopped by the stairs.

"Thank you, Sir...I know I don't deserve it. I suppose I would've been drowned if you hadn't shown up...I don't know what to say..." Remus said shakily, the full seriousness of the night's events having finally hit him.

"Goodnight Remus. You may keep the cloak for now. Return it to me later...and be sure to clean it first." Tsepesh said, turning on his heel and sweeping down the dungeon stairs before Remus got the chance to say anything more.

He made his way up to his room, finding his friends fast asleep already, worn out from their day of hard physical labour with Hagrid. Remus was glad of it, feeling quite shaken at having come so close to death. The last thing he needed was James and Sirius making jokes at his expense. So he crawled into his bed, still wrapped in the potion master's cloak, and fell into a troubled sleep.

* * *

For once, his dreams were free of werewolf attacks. Instead, he was haunted by visions of the woman in the lake. He felt a terrible longing to see her again; an intense desire to run out into the water and into her arms. She beckoned to him, even spoke to him in that breathy, breezy voice.

_Come back to me, Remus._

_But, who are you?_ He replied. Her pale face darkened, and her expression grew sad. She didn't reply. Instead, Remus fell off of his bed and woke with a start, tangled in the borrowed cloak.

The sound of his body hitting the floor woke Sirius, and the sound of Sirius shouting curses at the top of his lungs soon woke the others. Remus freed himself from the cloak and stood up so fast that he almost blacked out from the rush. Sirius finally ceased yelling obscenities and looked around, a spectacle-free James squinted in the early morning light, and Peter gaped around the room, utterly confused.

"What the hell is going on?" Sirius asked the room, and Peter shrugged. James put his glasses on.

"Remus, was that you?" James asked, and Remus nodded.

"Yeah, sorry...didn't mean to wake you all up. I fell."

"Oh...bloody hell, Sirius...the way you were shrieking you'd think someone had been trying to kill you or something." James said, and Sirius frowned, then turned to Remus.

"Where were you last night, anyway?"

"I was outside reading and lost track of time a bit..."

"Reading! You couldn't think of anything better to do than that?" Sirius teased. Remus ignored him.

"Remus, did you know you slept in your clothes?" Peter asked, "...are your trousers wet?"

"Was the book really _that_ good?" Sirius laughed.

"Shut up, Sirius...I didn't piss myself. I was in the lake."

"You were reading...in the lake?" James asked, and Remus sighed.

"No! I was reading...it got dark...and then I saw this...uh...no, I'm not telling you. You'll all laugh at me."

"What? ME? Laugh at you? Never!" Sirius shouted in a sarcastic tone. "But seriously...what happened? You can't start a sentence like that and not finish it. I promise I won't laugh." Remus looked doubtful. Peter got out of bed and wandered over to where Remus was standing.

"Okay...well, I saw this woman in the lake...she was sort of...glowing, and as soon as I looked at her it was like I was hynotised or something. I started walking out into the lake..."

"Hey, not to interrupt or anything, but whose is this?" Peter asked, holding up the cloak. James and Sirius shot him deadly looks, to which his cheeks quickly flushed an almost purple colour.

"I was just getting to that, if you could have waited about two seconds...right before I was close enough to touch her, Professor Tsepesh grabbed me and dragged me out of the water. That's his cloak...he lent it to me." Remus continued. James was grinning.

"You saw the rusalka! My parents told me about it...someone in their year was killed by it, I think…"

"Tsepesh...the potions professor? He saved you?" Sirius asked, and Remus nodded.

"I always thought of him as someone who'd be more likely to _kill_ somebody, not save them..." Peter added, half-joking.

"What was _he_ doing out there at night, anyway?" Sirius said, and Remus shrugged.

"Doesn't really matter. I'm just glad he _was_...anyway, he's sort of nice...behind all that scaryness. He didn't even punish me for being out so late."

"Really? No fair! We're all stuck in detention for reading a few restricted books...and you go out and almost get yourself killed and _nothing_?" James shouted in _mostly_ mock anger.

"Hey...what's a rusalka, anyway?" Peter asked, and James explained it to him impatiently. Remus noticed, by the look of disguised interest on Sirius's face as James gave his explanation, that he obviously hadn't known what it was either; but was doing his best to pretend he did, so as not to seem inferior to Peter.

"...and they'll try and drown anyone that comes near them because of it." James finished his lecture on the origins and habits of rusalki, and there was a moment of silence. It suddenly became very apparent just how early in the morning it was, and Remus became very aware of just how uncomfortable his wet clothes were.

"Well, I dunno about the rest of you, but as interesting and exciting as this all is, and since you're obviously not drowned and everyone's okay...I'm going back to bed. Five o'clock in the morning is way too early to be awake." James said, removing his glasses and crawling back under his sheets. Peter seemed to agree, and returned to his own bed. Sirius was still sitting up in his, staring blankly into space.

"Well...I think I'll have a bath first...I'm still covered in lake water..." Remus said, gathering up his bathing things and some pyjamas. He got a pillow-muffled reply from James, a snore from Peter, and an odd sort of hand gesture from a very zombie-like Sirius as he left the room.


	11. Part 2 Chapter 5

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part II: The Wolf Discovered**

_Lupin's second year at Hogwart's..._

_Chapter 5_

Remus was woken far earlier than he would have liked as the other boys got ready for their final day of detention. Their faces were all plastered with a look of joy and relief as they noisily prepared to join Hagrid for the last time, but Remus's face showed something altogether different in the early morning light. He'd had perhaps three hours of sleep after the night's ordeal, and was in no mood for James's 'optimistic morning person' attitude. He rolled over in bed and clamped his pillow over his ears, hoping that someone might notice and take it as a cue to be quiet.

"…oh, sorry Remus. We're off now anyway, so you can sleep in peace...see you later!" James whispered, and along with Peter and Sirius, crept out of the room. After a few moments, Remus was asleep once more.

* * *

"FREEDOM!"

"Shhh…Remus might still be trying to sleep, you git."

"Well, it's about time he woke up, isn't it!"

"Yeah, James…it's mid-afternoon…"

"Well, that's no excuse for shouting in the halls, is it?"

"YES, I THINK IT IS A MARVELLOUS EXCUSE FOR SHOUTING IN THE HALLS!"

"You're a twat, Sirius…you know that, right?"

"You love it. Remus! You're awake!"

"_Now_ I am…how was your last day of detention then?" Remus said, opening the door of their dorm room as the others approached from the stairs. He was still dead tired, but couldn't in good conscience let himself sleep any more of the day away.

"It was alright…knowing you won't have to be there again makes it feel a lot better than it probably was." James said, removing muddy gardening gloves and tossing them onto the foot of his bed. Sirius and Peter nodded in agreement, removing their own soiled garments.

"Slept all day, then?" Sirius asked, and Remus nodded, yawning.

"Yeah…but I feel like I could still sleep for a week."

"Isn't the full moon coming up soon? That could be part of it…" Peter suggested, and Remus shrugged.

"I suppose so…"

"Well, what do all of you say to a little exploration expedition this evening?" James asked with a grin, and Remus was hit with a feeling of impending doom. However, his need to spend some time with his long-detained friends was stronger.

"Yeah, alright…how about one of those passages?" He suggested, and the others nodded, excited grins spreading across their dirt-streaked faces.

* * *

After much deliberation, it was decided that they would explore the passage through the statue of the humpbacked witch. Sirius had found the passage when he'd been alone at the school; by running up and down the halls saying every opening and revealing spell he knew. It took him a moment to remember the spell that opened the tunnel, while the others kept an anxious watch.

"_Dissendium!_" He said at last, and the four boys climbed carefully into the dark tunnel. They crawled along the small, dark passage for what seemed like an eternity, and finally came to a dead end.

"Great…it doesn't go anywhere." Sirius grumbled, but James was carefully examining the walls by the light of his wand, unwilling to give up so easily.

"Wait…I think I see something up there…James, point that at the ceiling." Peter said, noticing a small amount of light coming through a gap in the ceiling of the tunnel that had been difficult to see because of their own lights.

"Hey…you're right! It's a trap door…no idea where it goes, though." James said, prodding at the ceiling with his finger. The ceiling was low enough that their heads just about touched it, and they could push open the door easily, provided it wasn't locked of course. However, they were apprehensive, wondering if there would be someone on the other side. They were very likely trespassing, and certainly didn't feel like getting caught and put back in detention.

"So…should we look? I mean…if we crack it open just a little bit…just enough to see through…then we'll see if anyone's in there, right?" Peter asked nervously, and the others decided it was worth a try. Otherwise they'd have come all this way for nothing.

"Sirius…you're tallest. You're the only one that'll be able to see up there easily…" James said, and Sirius sighed.

"Fine. But if I get in trouble, I'm taking you all with me." Sirius replied, and prepared to push the door open.

After an excruciating few seconds, he shoved against it and it creaked open a few inches. He rested it on his head and peered through into the room above. The others waited in anticipation for the verdict. Finally, he turned and faced them with a grin.

"Coast is clear…and you'll never guess where we are."

* * *

The cellar of Honeyduke's Sweet Shop was better than any of them could have imagined. They gorged themselves on everything they could find, feeling safe in the knowledge that the shop was closed for the night and no one would be around to catch them. At least, they _hoped_ no one would be around.

"Should we go upstairs?" Sirius asked, peering towards yet another trap door leading into the main area of the shop.

"I wouldn't…there's nothing up there that isn't down here, I'll bet…and we wouldn't be able to leave the shop or anything, since the front door's probably locked." Remus said, and Sirius nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so…"

"Shall we head back? I think I'm starting to feel a bit ill…" Peter groaned, his hands clasped to his midsection.

"Me too…I really don't think I should have had that last handful of Jelly Slugs…" James replied, looking decidedly green himself. Sirius didn't seem to be suffering at all, but he was obviously bored with being stuck in the dark cellar, so he readily agreed that leaving was the thing to do.

The four boys filled their pockets, taking full advantage of the bounty of "free" wares around them, and left through the trap door, careful to leave everything as close to how they found it as they could. They sluggishly clambered through the tunnel back to Hogwart's, some feeling a bit worse for wear but all feeling a great sense of accomplishment at having discovered something so wonderful, not to mention useful.

Reaching the end, or beginning of the tunnel once more, they climbed back out of the statue, careful not to be spotted, and made their way back towards the Gryffindor common room. They briefly considered bragging about their discovery, but thought better of it when they considered the possibility of someone narking on them, or even worse, going there themselves. It wouldn't be nearly so much fun if just anyone could do it, after all. They did however consider starting a profitable little smuggling business, selling sweets to those unable to get out to Hogsmeade.

They were pondering prices for chocolate frogs when McGonagall came into view at the end of the hall. The boys' hearts froze as they realised they were probably in a lot of trouble. James, Sirius and Peter all frowned at the prospect of returning to detention again so soon, but McGonagall completely ignored them and instead went straight for Remus.

"Mr. Lupin, could you please come with me. The rest of you, return to your rooms at once, please." she said, the usual sternness absent from her voice. The four boys glanced at each other, both confused and relieved, and the other three said goodbye to Remus as he followed McGonagall down the hall. He began to worry, wondering what he was needed for. Was he in trouble? But what had he done if he was? He couldn't think of anything, other than his little incident with the rusalka, and Tsepesh had said he wouldn't be punished for that. Had he changed his mind?

His head was so occupied with these questions and more that he barely noticed as he followed McGonagall up into Dumbledore's office. It was only when Dumbledore himself spoke that Remus became aware of his whereabouts once more.

"Remus, please sit down." Dumbledore said calmly, offering him a chair, which he nervously took. The look in Dumbledore's eyes told him something horrible had happened, and he almost didn't want to know about it, whatever it was. He braced himself.

Dumbledore continued to eye him calmly, obviously trying to think of the best way to put whatever words were about to follow. McGonagall stood just behind Remus's chair, and he could see her wringing her hands in the corner of his vision.

"Remus, we've just been informed that your father is missing."

His heart stopped. He knew it was going to be bad, but he had certainly not been prepared for the shock of it. McGonagall's hand grasped his shoulder, and she shot him a heartbreaking look. He looked back to Dumbledore, who was still calm as ever.

"What? Missing? B-but…"

"Now Remus, I know what you're thinking, but you must not think it. Missing does not mean dead. There are hundreds of possible explanations for his disappearance, so don't jump to conclusions." Dumbledore said sternly but gently. However, all Remus could think of was what had happened to Zoe's mother. Zoe probably heard the very same speech from someone over the summer when her mother disappeared, and a few months later, they found a body. She was a muggle, just like his father…and that Voldemort character had been in the papers time and again with his talk of cleansing the wizard gene pool…

"The Ministry is doing everything they can to find your father, and the muggle police have also been informed. Remus, what with it being so close to the end of the school year, you are free to go home early. Comfort your mother, stay in the house, and be careful. We must, of course, hope for the best…but always be prepared for the worst."


	12. Part 3 Chapter 1

**The Songbird and the Serpent**

**Part III: The Cloak**

_Lupin's third year at Hogwarts..._

_Chapter 1_

The first few weeks of the summer holidays could only be described as "sombre". Remus and his mother did their best to stay optimistic, hanging on every word of both the muggle and wizard news, on every knock at the door, and every ring of the telephone. The sound of beating wings or the hoot of an owl at any time of the day or night brought them sudden, but always brief, surges of hope. But no news came. There had been no sign of Mr. Thaddeus Lupin, and as Remus's mother pointed out at least three times a day, no news was still better than bad news. They could still hold out hope that he was alive somewhere. However, the fact that she frequently broke out into sobbing fits every time she said it did anything but help Remus to believe the words.

Remus himself found it difficult to cry, which bothered him almost as much as his father's disappearance did. He kept telling himself that it was only because he held out so much hope of his father's return, and did his best to keep his mind off of it; a difficult thing to do when you're stuck in a house with no one to talk to but a distraught mother. Luckily for Remus, help was on it's way.

* * *

The beginning of August saw the arrival of Remus's friends. His mother was happy to have them to stay, provided they all clean up after themselves and help her around the house occasionally. They arrived by floo; something that Remus found very exciting, as he'd never travelled by floo before, or had anyone visit by it for that matter.

Sirius was the first to come through the flaring green flames, almost hitting his head on the low mantle as he stepped out onto the Lupins' old hearth rug. He was closely followed by James, who _did_ hit his head on the mantle, and stumbled out into the room while everyone did their best not to laugh. Peter soon joined them, smiling broadly.

"Well don't just stand there boys… come on in!" Mrs. Lupin shrieked, and turned to James, who was rubbing the part of his head that had just connected with the fireplace. "Are you alright? Think you'll need some ice on that?" She asked, suppressing laughter.

"Oh, no… I think it's okay." He replied, obviously embarrassed. Sirius could contain himself no longer, and began cackling like a madman. A swift punch to his arm from James quickly put an end to his laughter.

"You must be Sirius!" Mrs. Lupin said, and he nodded, massaging his arm with a grin. "Goodness… Remus has told me so much about you all, I feel as though I know you already!" She continued, attacking the three boys with motherly hugs.

"Mum… please." Remus muttered, cringing. She backed away from the boys and rolled her eyes at her embarrassed son.

"Oh, come on Remus… they don't mind, do you boys!" She asked with a wink.

"Not at all, Mrs. Lupin… it's wonderful to meet you at last." Peter replied, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Right boys, well I shall return to the kitchen and let you all catch up. We'll be eating soon Remus, so don't go running off anywhere."

"The chance would be a fine thing." Remus mumbled to himself, apparently a little too loudly.

"Remus… none of that." His mother chided, before leaving for the kitchen. An brief but awkward silence followed as James, Sirius and Peter kept glancing at each other and then at Remus, as if wondering just what to say.

"So Remus… how are you and your mum doing? I mean…" James began, trailing off. Sirius and Peter both shot him a warning look.

"No, no, it's okay. We're okay. I mean… it's been hard. But we can't dwell on it, you know?" Remus explained, and the others nodded. "So, what do you lot want to do?"

"What _is_ there to do around here?" Sirius asked, and Remus thought for a moment.

"Not a whole lot I'm afraid. I'm not allowed out much… all the wizards in town are afraid of me, and everyone else, well, it's not like we can go out and do anything too 'magicky'… there are a lot of muggles in the area. Plus, supper will be ready soon."

"Well what is there to do in _here_ then?" James asked, as Sirius wandered around the living room. Remus was about to suggest a few things when Sirius spoke.

"What's this thing?" Sirius asked, poking at the television set. It hadn't occurred to Remus that his friends wouldn't have seen a television before. His father's muggle heritage meant that Remus was brought up with all the comforts of both worlds.

"Well, I guess that answers your question, James. That's a television. It's a muggle invention… here, I'll show you…" Remus said, and plugged in the set. The screen flickered on, and Sirius jumped back slightly before becoming quickly entranced by the images onscreen. James and Peter couldn't resist, either.

"So… is this one of those things that uses, er, electricity?" James asked, and Remus nodded.

"Yeah, most things in our house do."

"What's this that's on?" Sirius asked, never moving his eyes from the screen.

"Oh, that's the muggle news. We can see what else is on, though…" Remus said, turning the dial to change channels. "Ah, here we are." He said, sitting back against the sofa, where James and Peter had already settled themselves. On screen, a couple of men dressed as old women were discussing in high-pitched voices how a penguin had come to sit on their television set. Within a few minutes the boys were rolling with laughter; particularly Sirius, whose barking laugh caused Mrs. Lupin to run into the room to ask if everyone was alright. It took some convincing to put her mind at rest, what with Sirius lying on the floor apparently unable to breath for laughing. Eventually she returned to the kitchen, and the program ended soon after.

"Muggle inventions are so cool…" James said, wiping his glasses.

"Yeah, it's great what they come up with… I wish we had something like this!" Sirius added, flipping through the channels to find something else to watch.

"As if your mum would ever allow any muggle stuff in the house…" Peter joked, and Sirius sighed.

"And here I thought I was going to have trouble keeping you lot entertained." Remus said, more to himself than anyone else; a good thing, since they were all far too occupied with the television to hear him anyway.

* * *

Remus amazed his friends with many more muggle inventions during the next few weeks, and they all found themselves dreading the approach of September. Sirius in particular had become nothing short of obsessed with the muggle world, particularly the entertainment industry, and was determined to somehow get electricity into his room at home so he could have a television and a record player. Peter soon developed a taste for muggle sweets previously unheard of in his life, and James was intrigued by the world of muggle sporting events.

"It's just so strange that we never knew about these things before. Seems odd to live so close to this stuff without even knowing anything about it." Peter mused, looking through the Lupin's kitchen cupboards.

"Well, I guess it's the same sort of situation the muggles have with us wizards. I mean, at least we know they even exist!" James said, and Peter shrugged. "Oi Remus, where'd Sirius go?"

"My mum's showing him the car… he was interested in how muggles get about without broomsticks and stuff."

"Ah… honestly, I think he's starting to wish he _was_ a muggle." James joked, helping himself to a sandwich.

"Considering his family, I'm not surprised. I think I'd wish I was someone else, too…" Peter said quietly, and James nodded.

"Are they really that bad?" Remus asked, having never met the Blacks, apart from a few cousins. He certainly hadn't liked _them_, but he found it hard to believe that an entire family could really be so horrible.

"They really are. There are a few nice ones in the bunch, but not many. One of his cousins… Andromeda, I think… was disinherited recently. She married a muggle bloke a few years ago, right out of school. Apparently her dad, Sirius's uncle, was actually alright with it… but you'd never hear him say it in front of the rest of the family. He'd likely end up being ignored like Andromeda." James explained, and Remus shook his head, finding it all a bit odd.

"That just seems so odd. Sounds like a wonder Sirius isn't some maniac himself."

"He _is_ a maniac…" Peter muttered, and the others laughed.

"Yeah, well, you know what I mean. So wh--" Remus stopped short when he noticed Sirius standing in the doorway.

"It's not polite to talk about people behind their backs." He mumbled, retreating to the living room. Remus looked to James and Peter, both of whom looked as though they'd just been caught stealing. Remus was sure he looked about the same. He certainly _felt_ that way.

"I should go talk to him." James said, finally.

"Do you want us to--"

"No, no… I can handle it. He'll be too moody to talk to all of us. I know how to deal with him better than you two. It was mostly my fault, anyway. I didn't have to go blabbing to you about his family like that."

"Oh… okay."

Remus and Peter sat in deathly silence in the kitchen, aching to hear any part of the conversation going on in the next room. Unfortunately, all they could catch were occasional moments when Sirius would raise his voice, and he apparently wasn't terribly coherent at the moment. After a few moments of silence, Mrs. Lupin came in from outside, causing the two eavesdropping boys to jump about four feet in the air in shock.

"Merlin! I didn't mean to scare you boys!"

"Oh… er… sorry mum, you just startled us."

"What on earth are you up to, anyway? You're acting awfully strange, Remus."

"Well… I think we upset Sirius. James is in there talking to him…"

"I see. Trying to listen in, are you?" She said, her tone disapproving. Remus and Peter nodded. "And what exactly did you do to upset that poor boy?"

"We were just… well, I was curious about his family. He doesn't really get on with them, and I just wanted to know why, and he heard us talking about him."

"If you wanted to know about his family, maybe you should have asked _him_, hmm?"

"I would, only he never wants to talk about them. I didn't mean to upset him…"

"I'm sure you didn't, but from now on why don't you try _thinking_ before you go discussing someone's personal business, okay?"

"Sorry mum…"

"I'm not the one you should be apologising to. Anyway love, I have to go out to the shops. You boys be good, okay?" Mrs. Lupin said, walking back through the kitchen door. Remus and Peter could no longer hear anything at all coming from the living room, which only increased their curiosity. Still, they didn't dare leave the safety of the kitchen.

It wasn't terribly long before James and Sirius emerged from the living room, Sirius slightly red around the eyes. Remus guessed that he'd probably been crying, but he wouldn't dare say anything about it. He knew he'd likely get thumped if he did.

"Sorry, Sirius. I didn't mean to upset you, really. I was just curious."

"It's alright, mate."

"You sure?"

"_Yes_… but if you don't shut up about it, it won't be!" Sirius replied, only partly joking.

"So… what'd you think about the car, then?" Remus asked, eager to change the subject. Sirius seemed eager to accept the subject change, and grinned.


End file.
